

£4 



•JK8 



PREFACE. 



The object originally contemplated by the authors of the present work was to 

 continue the well-known series of illustrations contained in the " Planches Enlu- 

 minees" of Buffon and Daubenton, the " Planches Coloriees" of Temminck, and the 

 " Iconographie Ornithologique" of Des Murs. 



The first-named book furnishes us with representations of about 1500 species of 



birds, the second with those of about 750, and the last with those of 70 species. 



i 

 Upwards of 8000 species of this class of animals being now known to science, it will 



be apparent that there was ample room for a succession of similar works. It is true 



that there have been published of late years a large number of magnificently illustrated 



volumes relating to various branches of ornithology. But these have been chiefly in 



the nature of Faunas — devoted to the birds of one particular country, or Monographs — 



confined to the members of a single genus or Family. The present work was originally 



intended to be of a completely general nature — to illustrate the many new and rare 



ornithic forms that have been recently discovered in nearly every part of the world's 



surface. As it progressed, however, the authors found that it would be more convenient 



to restrict it to the birds of the Neotropical Begion-— that is America south of the 



United States. No other part of the world can vie with Tropical America in the 



richness of its Avifauna ; and nowhere else have so many brilliant discoveries been 



recently made as in its various districts. Moreover, one of the authors is so fortunate 



as to have been the original explorer of the ornithology of a very interesting portion of 



this Begion, and has thus been enabled to append to the accounts of the species met 



with within this area notes on their habits and local distribution. 



The present work, therefore, which has been issued in numbers since October 1st, 



1866, contains in its now complete form a series of one hundred coloured illustrations 



of Gentral and South American birds. The number of species figured is 104, belonging 



to 51 different genera. To the final illustration of each genus has been appended in 



nearly every case a systematic list of all the other American species of the same genus 



