PUBLISHEES' PREFACE 



By arrangement with the American publishers of Professor 

 Coues's Key to North American Birds, which has been for 

 many years the standard text -book of Ornithology, we are 

 enabled to present a new edition of those portions of the 

 " Key" which have not less interest for the English than for 

 the American public. 



The present volume consists of two distinct parts. 



Part I., entitled " Field Ornithology," contains the necessary 

 instructions for the observation and collection of birds in the 

 field, and for the preparation and preservation of specimens 

 for scientific study in the cabinet. 



Part II., entitled " General Ornithology," is a technical 

 treatise on the classification, the zoological characters, and 

 the anatomical structure of the class of Birds, in which the 

 examples cited in illustration of the principles of Ornithology 

 have for the most part been redrawn by the author from 

 British instead of American birds. 



With the further exception of a few verbal changes, and 

 slight abridgment in one or two places, made by the author in 

 revising the proofs, the present " Handbook " is a reprint of 

 the portions of the " Key" above specified. 



