PREFACE 



During a residence of several years in the 

 Canal Zone I became deeply interested in the 

 wonderfully abundant and varied bird life of 

 the region and numberless times felt the 

 want of a convenient book to enable me to 

 recognize and learn the names of the species 

 that are found there. The birds of this 

 region have been the subject of considerable 

 study, but the published information on them 

 is scattered in technical works, more or less 

 expensive and difficult to procure, or in vol- 

 umes of scientific periodicals. These are in- 

 accessible except to those having the use of a 

 library well provided with scientific books, 

 and the technical language in which much of 

 this literature is written makes it difficult to 

 use without some training in ornithology. 



This book is an attempt to fill the want as 

 well as the time, knowledge and other re- 

 sources available to me would permit. It 

 does not assume to be anything approaching 

 a treatise or handbook, but merely an aid to 

 the study of the birds of the region, giving 

 descriptions by which I hope it will be pos- 

 sible to recognize the species observed and 

 enable others to avoid many of the difficul- 

 ties that I myself experienced. It records 

 also such observations on their habits, calls, 

 songs, etc., as I have been able to make and 

 verify with a sufficient degree of certainty, or 

 which I have collected from other authors. 



