WATER FOWL 



VERY attractive province of ex- 

 ploration is awaiting those whose 

 study of birds, hitherto, has not 

 extended to that important, but 

 less accessible group of species, that chiefly 

 frequent the secluded watery places, the 

 marshes, larger rivers, lakes, and, most of all, 

 the margin of the sea. The general unfamili- 

 arity with this large section of our avifauna — 

 comprising a third of all the species found in 

 North America — and with which almost all 

 field ornithologists have a very limited acquaint- 

 ance, makes pertinent a few prefatory words in 

 regard to them. 



It is certainly a shame for anyone, who calls 

 himself a systematic student in any branch of 

 natural science, to be content to leave quite 

 unexplored so large and attractive a division of 

 his subject as the water fowl constitute in orni- 

 thology. And, although the geographical re- 

 moteness, both of habitat and during migra- 



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