PUBLISHED LOCAL LISTS 



An immense volume of literature relating to the birds of New York 

 State has accumulated during the 300 }-ears which have elapsed since 

 Hudson sailed into New York harbor. Casual references in the notes of 

 early travelers and colonial writers; definite records in the works of Wilson, 

 Audubon, Nuttall and other early ornithologists; numerous statements in 

 the works of Baird, Brewer, Ridgway, Coues and a host of modem writers 

 in America and some in Europe; many incidental records or bits of life 

 histories in scientific and popular magazines, such as the American Naturalist, 

 Science, Scribner's, Forest and Stream, and others; frequent accounts 

 of local or general interest in the numberless newspapers of the State and 

 adjacent territory, numerous references in government and museum reports 

 and bulletins; and finally records in the Auk, Osprey, Wilson Bulletin, 

 Ornithologist and Oologist, and other ornithological publications, all have 

 contributed to the distribution, migration and habits of our birds as reported 

 in the present volume. The work of completing the history and biblio- 

 graphy of New York ornithology has proved a task so seemingly endless, 

 however, that its publication is deferred for the present. The author has 

 found it impossible to assert with any degree of certainty who first added 

 the different species of our common birds to the list of our avifauna. It is 

 evident from the writings of Wilson and Audubon that most of our common 

 birds were v/ell known in New York during their time, and frequent 

 references are made in their works to different species of water birds 

 occurring on Long Island. 



For the use of New York bird students we have deemed it advisable to 

 publish a comparative summary of the principal bird lists referring 

 specially to the New York fauna, beginning with Giraud and DeKay. 



The Birds of Long Island, by J. P. Giraud jr, was published in 1844, 

 by Wiley and Putnam, 161 Broadwa}', N. Y., and is an octavo volume of 

 397 pages, with descriptions and annotations of 286 species. Only about 

 200 copies of this book were printed. The author includes the Crested 



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