33 



PREFACE. 



The present Memoir was undertaken upwards of ten years ago at the 

 request of the Nuttall Ornithological Club. For reasons which need not be 

 mentioned here, its progress has been vexatiously slow, and — what is still more 

 unfortunate — its completion at, the present time has been made possible only 

 by the sacrifice of certain historical features contemplated in its original plan. 

 Nevertheless, it is hoped that the paper will prove of use to the members of 

 the Club, as well as to other persons especially interested in the ornithology of 

 the Cambridge Region. No attempt has been made to give full life histories 

 of the birds. On the contrary, I have abstained from saying anything about 

 their habits, songs, etc., save in cases where some mention of these and kin- 

 dred matters has seemed essential to a clearer understanding of the reasons 

 governing the local occurrence or distribution of certain of the species, or desir- 

 able for the purpose of rendering commonplace or otherwise tedious details 

 more attractive. What I have had chiefly in mind has been to state as defi- 

 nitely as possible the times and seasons when each species has been noted, the 

 numbers in which it has occurred, at long past as well as in very recent times, 

 and the precise character and, in some instances also, situation of its favorite 

 local haunts. In addition to my own record books, covering upwards of forty 

 years of more or less continuous observation, those of the Nuttall Ornithological 

 Club, which extend as far back as 1873, have been freely consulted. Several of 

 the members of the Club, as well- as a few of my other ornithological friends, 

 have also placed their personal field notes quite at my disposal. Among those 

 to whom I am indebted for assistance of this and other kinds may be mentioned 

 Mr. G. M. Allen, Mr. Outram Bangs, Mr. C. F. Batchelder, Mr. Harold Bow- 

 ditch, Dr. A. P. Chadbourne, Mr. Walter Deane, Mr. Richard S. Eustis, Mr. 

 Walter Faxon, Mr. William P. Hadley, Mr. John H. Hardy, Jr., Mr. Hemy W. 

 Henshaw, Mr. Ralph Hoffmann, Mr. W. A. Jeffries, Mr. F. H. Kennard, Mr. 

 Charles R. Lamb, Mr. Oliver Ames Lothrop, Mr. C. J. Maynard, Mr. F. B. 

 McKechnie, Miss Bertha T. Parker, Mr. H. M. Spelman, Dr. C. W. Townsend, 

 Mr. Howard M. Turner, Dr. Walter Woodman, and others whose names appear 

 in the following pages. 



