INTRODUCTION. 



The only previous list dealing with the birds o£ South America as a whole is that 

 published by Messrs. Sclater and Salvin in 1873 — 'Nomenclator Avium Neo- 

 tropicalium ' — and although Central America, Mexico to Panama, and the Galapagos 

 Islands were included in that list, the number of species was only 3565, while the 

 present list recognises 4561 forms in South America alone. 



The names useiLin this List appear as binomials, but it must be clearly understood, 

 however, that this system- has been used only for convenience and simplicity. 

 It does not mean that we accept all the forms included here as being of specific 

 value. Trinomials can only be determined by means of monographic revision, 

 and these will be used throughout the body of the forthcoming work. The names 

 here given are thus of unequal value, and only represeut the forms which have been 

 accepted as valid species and subspecies by previous authors. 



The method used in the preparation of this List has been to verify the original 

 description or figure of each species, cite the locality, and give an outline of the 

 distribution in South America. We have not thought it desirable to give the 

 extra-limital range, but we intend to do so in the forthcoming volumes, where all 

 the details will be fully worked out. 



We have followed the law of priority, and attempted to copy the original 

 spellings. Early authors did not always give a locality with their descriptions ; 

 many localities have been added by recent writers, while we have supplied a 

 number in the present work. 



The terms used in the distribution of the species are those of political divisions, 

 and not zoogeographical areas. We have not used the term "Amazonia/' as 

 many ornithologists do — in the first place because it appears to have no defined 



