PREFACE. 



This List of the Birds of Eastern Massachusetts has been 

 prepared at the request of the Museum Committee of the 

 Peabody Academy of Science with the intention of encour- 

 aging a legitimate popular interest in an exceedingly 

 attractive and economically valuable group of the local 

 fauna. Of the species mentioned in the List all but about 

 fifty have been recorded from Essex County and a very 

 large proportion of them are on exhibition in the Museum, 

 where they may be seen daily by everyone interested. 



It is very much desired to obtain for the Museum as com- 

 plete a representation as possible of the native fauna and it 

 is hoped that all persons having an opportunity to secure 

 local examples of species not in its collection, will aid in 

 so doing. Records of species new to the Essex County fauna 

 or to the district treated in this List will also be welcomed 

 by the author. 



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