PREFACE. 



TiiK object of tliis Catalogue is to bring topether the names of all the 

 birds that have been discovered within the boundaries of the Dominion, 

 from tlie Atlantic Ocean to the F'acific, and north to the Arctic ; to pre- 

 sent these in the system of nomenclature and in the sequence now gen- 

 erally adopted by American Ornithologists, and to give the geographical 

 distribution of each species. 



This latter portion of tlie work has not been accomplished very satis- 

 factorily, for, although considerable lalxjr and care have been devoted to 

 the preparation of the notes on distribution, they are not at all coniplete, 

 and I fear that, on further investigation, some of them will be proven 

 incorrect. There is no way at present of avoiding these defects. All 

 the information that is now obtainable has been procured ; the works of 

 the older authors have been freely drawn upon, as well as those of 

 recent writers, and a number of MSS. reports have been prepared ex- 

 pressly for the present work. Hut the greater portion of the country — 

 immense stretches of forest and prairie and sea coast — have received 

 little attention from Ornithologists, while even the more settled districts 

 have not yet been fully investigated, leaving a large amount of field- 

 work still to be done before anything like a complete account of the 

 liirds of Canada can be produced. 



1 am (juite aware that this opinion regarding the narrow limits of our 

 knowledge of Canadian birds is opposed to that held by some of the 

 leading scientific men of the Dominion, who consider th.it all that can be 

 learned about our fauna is now known to science. That these gentle- 

 men have held such a view has been unfortunate for Canadian orni- 

 thology, for it has led them to take little interest in the investigations 

 that were being made, and to withhold all encouragement from students 

 of the science ; and as this indiflference of our leaders in scientific aflfairs 



i 



