DESCRIPTIONS OF SPECIES 



In the descriptions in this book, since they 

 have been prepared especially to aid those 

 observing the birds while living and usually 

 therefore at some distance, details and char- 

 acters not likely to be noticed by the ob- 

 server have often been disregarded. Such 

 adjectives as large, short, dark, etc., are 

 necessarily used in senses more or less rela- 

 tive, so that they must be construed with 

 regard to the usual characters of the birds 

 of the family to which the species belongs. 

 The dimensions, length (total length from 

 tip of bill to tip of tail feathers) and tail 

 (length of longest tail feathers), that are given 

 are those which will be of most service in 

 giving an idea of the size of a bird. Even if 

 the total length is known, only an indefinite 

 idea is obtained of the real size unless it is 

 also known how much of this is taken up by 

 the tail. In this connection the reader should 

 be cautioned that as the basal portion of the 

 tail feathers is covered for some distance by 

 the short feathers of the posterior part of the 

 body called the tail coverts, the tail actually 

 appears proportionately shorter, relative to 

 the body and the total length, than its dimen- 

 sions in inches or millimeters indicate. 



Wherever it has been possible to do so, the 

 dimensions in millimeters have been taken 

 from Ridgway's "Birds of North and Middle 

 America," using the average of the measure- 



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