4 PREFACE. 



Birds, and in the preliminary key to the ordeis of Birds. Dr. 

 COUES has also kindly placed at my disposal the advance -sheets 

 of his yet unpublished monograph of American Bats. 



I am also under obligations to Messrs. BAIRD and RIDGWAY, 

 whose writings have been to me of essential service; to Prof. 

 COPE, whose numerous papers have been of great value in the 

 systematic arrangement of the Fishes, and whose check list of 

 the Reptiles and Batrachians has been closely followed in the 

 classification of those groups ; to Prof. GILL, whose arrangement 

 of the families of Fishes has been, with few modifications, 

 adopted in the present work; to Dr. GUNTIIER, whose Catalogue 

 of Fishes is the vade-mecum of the working ichthyologist; to 

 Prof. RICHARD BLISS, Jr., who has generously aided me in the 

 indentification of the Centrarchidae, in advance of the publication of 

 his monograph of that most difficult group ; to Mr. E. W. NELSON, 

 of Chicago, who has kindly furnished me with a yet unpub- 

 lished list of the Birds and Reptiles of Illinois; to Prof. F. W. 

 PUTNAM, Dr. B. G. WILDER, and Dr. C. C. ABBOTT, for the loan 

 of books and other aids ; to Prof. H. E. COPELAND, for help of 

 various kinds, particularly in the verification of descriptions, 

 and to the many collectors and compilers of local lists, who 

 have freely placed their material at my disposal. 



D. S. J. 



INDIANAPOLIS, IND., May, 1876. 



PREFATORY NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



In the present edition the accounts of the Mammals, Birds and 

 Reptiles remain, except for a few verbal changes, the same as in 

 the original edition. A few species recently added to our Fauna 

 are noticed in an Addenda. 



It has been found necessary to entirely recast the account of the 

 Fishes, in order to include the results of recent investigations in 

 that department. The author has availed himself of this oppor- 

 tunity to substitute for the artificial keys in the previous edition, a 

 series of generic diagnoses, which, while serving the purpose of a 

 "key," also serve to express the true relations of the species. 



D. S. J. 



INDIANAPOLIS, IND, MAT, 1878. 



