LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



Washington, March 11, 1887. 



General: I bave the honor to trausmit herewith a report upou the Xatural History Col- 

 lections made iu Alaska by Mr. E. W. IlTelsou, during the years 1877 to 1881, intended to form 

 No. Ill of the Arctic Series of Publications of the Signal Office. 



It seems jn-oper to add a brief statement of the manner iu which the volume has been pre- 

 pared and my own connection with it. 



Upon his return from Alaska iu ISSl, Jlr. Nelson at once begau work upon the ornithological 

 portion of the present volume, intending later to take up reports upon his collections of Mammals 

 and Fishes. The ornithological report was well advanced towards completion when failing health, 

 directly traceable to exposure in the North, compelled an abrupt cessation of labor and an imme- 

 diate departure of Mr. Nelson for the West, where he has since resided. Meantime the entire 

 subject of the nomenclature of North American Birds has been revised, and a check list issued 

 by the American Ornithological Union. In addition a number of reports upon, aud partial lists 

 of, Alaska birds have been issued. It thus seemed very desirable that Mr. Nelson's report upon 

 Alaskan birds, covering, as was intended, the whole territory, should be revised and brought up 

 to date. 



At Mr. Nelson's request, aud in accordance with the wishes of the Chief Signal Officer, the 

 writer has undertaken to do this, and in addition to supervise editorially the whole volume. 

 The chnpters on Mammals aud Fishes have been prepared by Mr. Frederick W. True and Dr. Tarle- 

 ton H. Bean, both well known authorities upon their respective subjects, Mr. Nelson furnishing 

 the field-notes in both cases. Mr. W. U. Edwards has added a chapter upon the Diurnal Lepidoptera 

 collected by Mr. Nelson, an introduction to which is furnished by the latter. 



The results of Mr. Nelson's investigation embodied iu the present volume will prove, it is 

 believed, a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the natural history of Alaska, both on 

 account of the extent of his collections and the able and faithful manner in which his iield obser- 

 vations were made. 



It is greatly to be regretted that Mr. Nelson was unable to complete his reports as he intended, 

 aud to give the manuscript the final finishing touches, for the lack of which no editorial super- 

 vision, however careful, can fully compensate. Acting in his editorial capacity, the present writer 

 has not hesitated to amend aud change in the ornithological chapter wherever later and fuller 

 information required, and thus he shares to a considerable extent the responsibility of authorship. 

 The field observations and the general deductions have been left practically as Mr. Nelson wrote 

 them. 



H. W. HENSHAW. 



Chief Signal Officer, U. S. Army, 



Washington, B. (J. 

 S. Mis. 156 — ^2 9 



