PREFACE. 
viii. 
by offering them pictures of the homes of birds for study and contempla- 
tion, and thus abate the evil; or if it add but one new fact to the author’s 
favorite science of ornithology, or benefit it in any way whatever, he will 
rest satisfied, and feel that he has not labored in vain. 
Thomas G. Gentry. 
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pa., 
May, 1882. 
