INTRODUCTION. 



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THE present volume is intended to supply a want 

 much felt by the author during the course of his 

 ornithological studies, and therefore presumably experi- 

 enced by other workers in the same field ; namely, a nomen- 

 clature of colors and a compendious dictionary of technical 

 terms used in descriptive ornithology, together with a 

 series of plates or diagrams illustrating the external anat- 

 omy of a bird in relation to the terms employed, and such 

 other things as are more clearly expressed by a picture 

 than by a mere definition. Probably few, if any, natural- 

 ists have not on more than one occasion deplored the 

 absence of such an aid to their studies ; for it is very 

 difficult, if not impossible, for any one to keep all these 

 things clearly in mind. 



Undoubtedly one of the chief desiderata of naturalists, 

 both professional and amateur, is a means of identifying 

 the various shades of colors named in descriptions, and of 

 being able to determine exactly what name to apply to 

 a particular tint which it is desired to designate in an 

 original description. No modern work of this character, 

 it appears, is extant, — the latest publication of the kind 

 which the author has been able to consult being Syme's 

 edition of " Werner's Nomenclature of Colors," published 



