PREFACE. 
THE present supplement compiled over three years after the 
publication of “The Birds of Rhode Island” in October, 1899, 
endeavors to bring up to date the present knowledge of Rhode 
Island avifauna, and to correct that work both in misstatements 
and typographical errors. 
Much aid has been rendered to the authors in the compilation 
of this supplement by those interested in Rhode Island ornithol- 
ogy, and the State can now claim, for a period of two years, Major 
Edgar A. Mearns as a resident ornithologist, well known as a dis- 
tinguished scientist ; and who in two years with his son’s aid added 
much to the knowledge of Rhode Island birds and mammals. 
Since the publication of the original work, Rhode Island has 
lost by death one of its most prominent and useful ornithologists — 
Newton Dexter. His name will certainly ever be connected with 
Rhode Island ornithology as a collector, true sportsman, and pro- 
moter of the study of the science in the State in which he was born, 
lived and died. 
The order followed in the original work has for convenience 
been followed in the present supplement. 
REGINALD HEBER HOWE, Junror. 
EDWARD STURTEVANT. 
