PREFACE. 
It is due to myself as well as the public, that I should say 
the great delay in the publishing of this volume has been from 
causes beyond my personal responsibility. I have regretted it 
on account of some misapprehensions that have arisen, but it 
is said that ‘‘ All is well which ends well,” and half of the 
quotation is assuredly true in this case, for this ends it. 
The magnitude of the task so zealously conceived and under- 
taken, was greatly understimated, yet the earnest employment 
of all of my opportunities enabled me to approximate my 
ideal for a time, when an interruption of several years occur- 
red, after which it became impossible to maintain more than is 
shown by the completed work. 
The classification is that established by the American Orni- 
thological Union, and published in 1886. Each species given 
has its corresponding number, and except in occasional in- 
stances, the descriptions mostly correspond with those given 
in the Pacific Railroad Reports, and the measurements are in 
inches and hundredths of an inch. 
While I have aimed to make it as nearly correct in its state- 
ments of facts observed as is possible, I do not flatter myself 
that errors have not found their way into this record through 
so many years of observations, which others may ultimately 
correct. Pb BACHE 
August 16, 1892. 
