PREFACE. 
In offering this little volume to the public, I 
have endeavored to describe and give the history 
of only those species of birds of the United States 
that I have myself collected and mounted, and 
whose nests and eggs I have located and gathered. 
In the forty years that I have been occupied in 
making my several collections, the habits of the 
birds I include in my notes have become very 
familiar to me, and having been among them at 
all seasons of the year, the brief accounts I present 
for the benefit of the ornithologist and collector 
can be relied upon as accurate. 
Ihave endeavored to give, in as plain a manner 
as possible, such information as will be of value 
to the collector, setting forth localities where I 
have usually found the different species and dis- 
covered their eggs. All the varieties described 
in my notes, have ‘come directly under my ob- 
servation, and of these only do I treat. 
Joun Kriper. 
