INTRODUCTION. 



Of the several lists of the birds of Michigan, from that of Dr. Abram Sager. 

 published in 1839, to the most recent by Dr. Morris Gibbs, published in the Ornithol- 

 ogist and Oologist, Vol. 10, 1885, not one is accessible to the younger students of 

 ornithology. While some of the lists are quite full and accurate, not one gives the 

 food and nesting habits of our birds. Such a list can but fill a pressing need, and 

 must receive a most hearty welcome. Indeed I have had frequent inquiries for a cata- 

 logue by my students and others, and often have been urged to prepare a list. 



Owing to my very numerous duties at the college, and my greater interest in the study 

 of entomology I have, previous to this time, been unable to give any time to this work. 

 The past summer the valuable manuscripts of the late Dr. H. A. Atkins came into my 

 hands, and the State Board of Agriculture voted that I should prepare a list, to be 

 sent out as a bulletin by the experiment station. 



Having taught ornithology for the past twenty-six years at the Michigan Agricult- 

 ural College to large classes, in which there were many good observers who had 

 already made some progress in this study, and who represented many sections of the 

 State, and having in the meantime made quite a considerable collection, through the 

 aid of my students, of birds and birds' eggs for our museum, of which I have had the 

 entire charge, I have been able to gather many and some valuable facts regarding the 

 birds of our State. 



I have also had in my possession all the manuscripts of the late Dr. H. A. Atkins, of 

 Locke, Michigan, who was for twenty-nine years a most enthusiastic and conscientious 

 student of this branoh of natural history. Dr. Atkins kept a careful record of the 

 birds of Locke, Ingham County, Michigan, with the date of the capture of each 

 species, the time of the first appearance and exit, each year, and the full dates of all 

 migrations. This record was very full and accurate, considering the meager literature 

 that Dr. Atkins had at his command. Dr. Atkins visited me quite frequently, and I 

 am assured of his entire devotion to this science, and his earnest effort to secure all 

 possible accuracy in his determination of species and his statements of facts. I have 

 received valuable aid from Dr. Atkins' carefully prepared manuscript, and have starred 

 every bird that he reported from our State.' For the dates, nesting habits, number and 

 colors of eggs, I am much indebted to these manuscripts, which, through the kindness of 

 Mrs. Atkins, were put in my possession. Nearly all the birds reported by Dr. Atkins 

 have also been taken here, and so have come under my own personal observation. Dr. 

 Atkins' observations were nearly all made at Locke, and the species starred were all taken 

 at that place, unless special mention is made to the contrary. 



I have also received great assistance from Prof. A. W. Butler, of Brookville, Indiana. 



