INTRODUCTION 11 



treated more or less fully 48 species of birds, including a few 

 now rare or exterminated, as the swallow-tailed kite, Carolina 

 paroquet, and ivory-billed woodpecker. Apparently Gosse 

 did not succeed in inspiring any of his pupils with the en- 

 thusiasm for natural history he himself possessed, for nearly 

 twenty years passed before any further contributions were 

 made to the ornithology of the State. 



LOCAL LISTS OP BIRDS. 



In 1878 and 1879 Nathan Clifford Brown published a list 

 of birds observed at Coosada, Elmore County, between Jan- 

 uary 21 and April 30, 1878.* The list numbers 119 species, 

 and is fully annotated, thus furnishing the first modern local 

 list of Alabama birds. Among the rarities^ he discovered 

 were the Leconte sparrow and the Swainson warbler. 



In 1890 and 1891, Dr. William C. Avery puWished in Amer- 

 ican Field,t under the initials "W. C. A.," a list of birds ob- 

 served in Hale County. This paper, treating of 184 species 

 and embodying the results of his many years' observation and 

 collecting at Greensboro, furnishes an important contribution 

 to the faunal ornithology of Alabama. Dr. Avery's untimely 

 death in 1894 doubtless retarded the progress of ornithology 

 in the State. His extensive collection of bird skins is pre- 

 served at the State University in the Museum of the (Jeological 

 Survey, and through the kindness of the director, Dr. Eugene 

 A. Smith, I have been enabled to examine and identify these 

 specimens and to make use of Dr. Avery's original field notes. 



Within a few weeks after the completion of Dr. Avery's 

 list, Fred W. McCormack, editor of the "Leighton News," 

 began in that paper the publication of a series of articles en- 

 titled "Notes on Colbert Co. (Ala.) Birds," appearing semi- 

 monthly from February 1, 1891, to January 2, 1892. This 

 list, numbering 156 species, was based almost wholly on ob- 

 servations of the author and his friends in and around Leigh- 

 ton, and contains a fund of original information which has 

 proved of great importance in the preparation of the present 

 report. So far as known, the only complete copy of Mr. Mc- 



•BuU. Nutt. Ornith. Club, vol. S, pp. 168-174, 1878 ; vol. 4, pp. 7-13, 1879. 

 fAmer. Field, vol. 34, pp. 584, 607-608, 1890,- vol. 36, pp. 8, 82, 56, 1891. 



