iv GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 



have been studied extensively, and reference has been had at 

 every step to the needs of the public schools and the higher in- 

 stitutions of learning. 



In the preparation of the volumes of this report it will be 

 our main final object to furnish the materials for a full and 

 accurate picture of the native plant and animal life of Illinois 

 as it actually exists in our fields, woods, and waters, and to 

 bring most prominently into view those parts of the subject 

 which have a peculiar educational or economic value. Especial- 

 ly we have hoped to furnish in this series a solid and perma- 

 nent basis for the study and teaching of the natural history of 

 this State and of its different sections, thus opening to the 

 student and the teacher the way to a familiar knowledge of the 

 life of his neighborhood in all the relations likely to have any 

 important bearing on popular education or on the general welfare. 



Classification and description must furnish the foundation of 

 such a work; but to these will be added accounts of habits, of 

 life history, and of relations to nature in detail and at large, 

 as full as the state of our knowledge and the funds at our dis- 

 posal will permit. 



The volume here presented is due to the generous and disin- 

 terested labors of Dr. Robert Ridgway, formerly of Mt. Carmel, 

 Illinois, an ornithologist whose long and eminent service in the 

 Smithsonian Institution and the United States National Museum 

 seems only to have intensified his interest in the promotion of 



the study of his favorite science in his native State. 



********** * 

 To the characteristic generosity of the honored and lamented 



Dr. Spencer F. Baird, we owe the illustrations of this volume, 

 with the exception of the frontispiece, all being printed from 



