HOW TO NAME THE BIRDS. 



Connecticut, and in Maine not for a week or two later. The 

 breeding-haunts are indicated, and the nest and eggs men- 

 tioned, when they are either accessible to the student, or, 

 when belonging to northern latitudes, of special interest. 

 The range of the bird for the year is taken from the Check- 

 list of the American Ornithologists' Union, which is the 

 acknowledged authority. The nomenclature is also that of 

 the A. O. U. Check-list, the first English name and the 

 Latin title being according to its tenets. In some cases I 

 have added one or more English names, because they are 

 universally understood and are more or less used in the 

 manuals and state publications. 



In modern science, classification follows the method of 

 natural evolution, grading from the lowest forms to the 

 highest. Under this system the Diving Water-birds should 

 head the list, and the Thrush Family of Song-birds end it. 

 Some time ago a different system obtained, that of beginning 

 with the highest orders and descending in the scale, and 

 the birds in this book are so arranged. The reason for doing 

 this is that it presents the Song-birds first, and it is to these 

 that you will be first attracted, and, finding many of them 

 familiar, you will be led by easy stages to the Birds of Prey 

 and the Water-birds, which probably you have had less 

 chance to know. If, however, you prefer to habituate your- 

 self to the more modern method, all that you have to do is 

 to begin at the end of the book and work backward. 



The two hundred birds chosen for description from the 

 A. 0. U. list of over nine hundred species of North Ameri- 

 can Birds are selected as being those which will be the most 

 likely to interest bird-lovers living in the temperate parts 

 of the country, and especially in the Middle and Eastern 

 States. If birds are included that are rarer (in other locali- 

 ties) than species that are omitted, it is owing to marked 

 characteristics or some interesting traits of the particular 

 birds. 



The mazes of classification are omitted. As a novice who 

 wishes to recognize the birds by sight, you have no need of 

 their services beyond learning the English and Latin names 



37 



