VI BIEDS OF THE COLORADO VALLEY 



will compare so favorably with what has before been done in the 

 bibliography of any department of science as to furnish a model 

 for the future. 



Since the appearance of the "Birds of the Northwest " it has 

 been a matter of frequently expressed regret that the accounts 

 of the birds treated hi that volume did not include such descrip- 

 tions of the species as should enable those using the work to 

 identify specimens they might have in hand. It has been 

 deemed advisable to supply this want in the present treatise, 

 especially as a considerable proportion of the characteristic 

 birds of the Colorado Yalley are not so well known as are most 

 of those inhabiting the region of the Missouri. The descrip- 

 tions are original, in nearly every case having been drawn up 

 by the author directly from the specimens themselves, with 

 great regard to precision of concise statement. All the species 

 ascertained to occur in the Yalley of the Colorado, being those 

 which form the special subject of the work, are thus treated, the 

 other North American birds of which the volume takes account 

 being introduced only with their synonymy and a brief state- 

 ment of the habitat of each. 



Eespecting the biographies or " life-histories ?? of the birds, 

 which constitute the main text of the present volume, the 

 author's view, that this portion of the subject should be so far 

 divested of technicality as to meet the tastes and wants of the 

 public rather than the scientific requirements of the schoolmen 

 in ornithology, will doubtless meet with general and emphatic 

 approval. It is possible to make natural history entertaining 

 and attractive as well as instructive, with no loss in scientific 

 precision, but with great gain in stimulating, strengthening and 

 confirming the wholesome influence which the study of the 

 natural sciences may exert upon the higher grades of mental 

 culture; nor is it a matter of little moment to so shape the 

 knowledge which results from the naturalist's labors that its 

 increase may be susceptible of the widest possible diffusion. 



The first twelve sheets of this volume (to p. 192) were printed 

 in 1876, when other engagements obliged the author to inter- 

 rupt the preparation of the work. The printing was resumed in 

 1878, and is completed at the date of this prefatory. A few 

 impressions of the earlier sheets may have already been in pri- 

 vate circulation, but no portion of the work is published prior 

 to this date. The types of pp. 1-192 having been distributed 

 without stereotyping after only 1,500 impressions had been 



