INTRODUCTORY. 



[Dr. Cones to Dr. Sayden.'] 



FoET Eandall, Dakota, May 13, 1873. 



Sib : Herewith I transmit, in compliance with your request, for pab- 

 ication under the auspices of the Geological Survey of the Territories, 

 a Work on the Ornithology of the Missouri Region, on which, as you are 

 aware, I have been long engaged, its completion having been delayed 

 by various circumstances needless to detaiL In this connection, how- 

 ever, I may refer to the circumstances under which the work originated, 

 in explanation of its present plan and scope. This is a matter with 

 which you are jourself already familiar, but one which may be presented 

 to answer the purposes of a preface which would otherwise be required. 



Tlie basis of the present volume is mainly an unpublished report 

 which I prepared at Washington, in the j^ear 1862, upon the ornitholo- 

 gical collections made by yourself and Mr. G. H. Trook as Naturalists 

 of the Expedition under Captain (now General) W. F. Eaynolds, United 

 States Engineers. The specimens submitted to me for elaboration were 

 subjected to careful examination, and found to represent a decided ad- 

 vance in the knowledge then possessed of the geographical distribution 

 of the species in the region under considera,tion. The interest attaching 

 to this series of specimens, as an element in the history of Western Or- 

 nithology, renders it advisable, in my judgment, to preserve throughout 

 the present volume the "List of Specimens" which were formally tab- 

 ulated* for the original report. 



In 1867, while stationed at Columbia, South Carolina, I desired to 

 recall my MSS. in order to retouch them according to the steady advance 

 of our knowledge of the subject during the intervening live years. On 

 this occasion it seemed advisable to extend the article to embrace the 

 ornithological results which you had obtained as Naturalist of the previ- 

 ous Explorations, conducted in 1856-'57 in the region of the Upper 

 Missouri, Yellowstone, and Platte Elvers, by Lieutenant (now General) 

 G. K. Warren, United States Engineers. Such addition would not only 



* In these tables, tlie first column gives the number which the specimen bears on the 

 register of the National Museum at Washington ; the second, the "original" or collect- 

 or's number ; third, the locality ; fourth, sex ; fifth and sixth, date of collection, and by 

 ■whom collected ; seventh, eighth, ninth, measurements (upon collector's authority) of, 

 respectively, total length, extent of wings, and length of wing from carpus to apex of 

 longest primary. To economize space, these several headings have been omitted from 

 the text, with explanation in this place, which will prevent misunderstanding. 



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