PREFACE. 
O learn to call a bird by its right name is the first step in the 
study of ornithology. We may propose to investigate the 
structure, food, and habits of the birds of the world, or de- 
sire merely a superficial knowledge of the species found in our garden, 
but in either case we are at once confronted by this question of identi- 
fication. 
From the scientific point of view there is but one satisfactory way to 
identify a bird. A specimen of it should be in hand in order that its 
form, color, and size may be accurately determined, when, with the 
aid of analytical keys, with which most text-books are provided, it is 
a simple matter to ascertain the bird’s name. 
Wide experience has shown the writer, however, that where one 
dead bird is identified, hundreds of attempts are made to name the 
living bird in nature. This is to be expected. It is the natural out- 
come of the recent remarkable interest in the study of birds which, 
fostered by Audubon Societies and nature study teachers, has assumed 
an ethical and educational importance of the first magnitude. 
We cannot place a gun in the hands of these thousands of bird- 
lovers whom we are yearly developing; indeed most of them 
would refuse to use it. Specimens, therefore, are rarely available to 
them and we should make some special effort to meet their peculiar 
wants. The present volume has been prepared with this end in view. 
Identification of the bird in the bush is its sole end; an end, however, 
which we trust will prove but the beginning of a new and potent 
interest in nature. 
Frank M. CHAPMAN. 
American Museum of Natural History, 
New York City, 1903. 
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