BIOGRAPHIES-ILLUSTRATIONS. 39 



In preparing these biographical sketches I have aimed to secure 

 the best material possible, using my own notes only when I felt they 

 Were based on adequate observations. Not only have 1 carefully ex- 

 amined the literature relating to the habits of our birds, selecting 

 what seemed to be the most trustworthy accounts of their appearance 

 in life, but through the generous co-operation of fellow-students of 

 living birds I am able to present character sketches of some of our 

 birds, written by observers who are everywhere known for their sym- 

 pathy with birds out-of-doors. Thus I have to thank Mrs. Miller, 

 Miss Merriam, Mr. Bicknell, Mr. Brewster, Dr. Dwight, Mr. Thomp- 

 son, and Mr. Torrey for pen pictures of birds with which they are 

 especially familiar, each sketch being signed by its author. 



Illustrations. — The colored frontispiece is by Mr. Ernest E. Thomp- 

 son, whom I have to thank for assistance in preparing the color chart 

 and Key to Families. The scheme of this key, which is founded on 

 natural arrangement and on drawings of anatomical details, is original 

 with him, and that here presented is a slight modification of the one 

 he completed and contributed at a time when he was expected to be a 

 joint author of this work. The numerous pen-and-ink drawings, which 

 add so largely to the value of the work, were made by Mr. Tappan 

 Adney from specimens in the American Museum of Natural History. 

 Some of the full-page half-tone plates are from photographs of groups 

 in the American Museum of Natural History ; tlie larger number, how- 

 ever, were especially designed for this work, with the assistance of Mr. 

 J. Rowley, Jr. 



The Color Chart. — It must not be supposed for a moment that the 

 colors on the Plate II. represent the colors of all the birds of eastern 

 North America. It does not do so any more than an artist's palette 

 shows all the colors of his picture — in fact, I have called this plate 

 my mental palette, and have frequently used two and even three terms 

 to describe a given shade or tint. 



It should be clearly understood, therefore, that when grayish brown, 

 for example, is mentioned, it does not follow that the feathers to which 

 the term is applied are of exactly the same color as the plate, but that 

 they are nearer to this color than to any other in the plate. Used even 

 in this general way, the plate will prove a far more definite basis for 

 description than if every one were left to form his own idea of the^ 

 colors named. 



