6 EDITORS PREFACE. 



forth two supplementary lists, to include the numerous 

 species which, through his insufficient information and 

 his desire to reflect upon the paper of his predecessor, 

 he had either ignorantly or designedly omitted. 



Neither of the catalogues of New England Birds 

 in mention professes to be more than a list of names, 

 with very brief items respecting the life-histories, of 

 the species represented ; and the numerous " local lists " 

 which have appeared from time to time are all of the 

 same contracted scope. The most valuable of these 

 will be found to be the writings of Boardman, Verrill, 

 and Maynard for Maine, those of Maynard for New 

 Hampshire, of Allen and Minot for Massachusetts, 

 and especially of Merriam for Connecticut. The Bul- 

 letin of the Nuttall Ornithological Glub contains num- 

 berless notices of New England Birds, by the writers 

 already mentioned, and by Purdie, Brewster, Deane, 

 Bailey, and many others who have contributed so 

 largely to the general store of information which we 

 have acquired. For much assistance in collating and 

 sifting the scattered records which were necessarily 

 to be examined, the editor is under special obligations 

 to his friend, Mr. H. A. Purdie, of Boston. 



While it is doubtless true that we have more precise 

 and more nearly complete knowledge of the Birds of 

 New England than we have yet acquired of those of 



