THE BIRDS OF WISCONSIN. 
3 
Committee, and have used as full generic names a number of 
those as yet considered as of but sub-generic value in the Check 
List. In all but a few cases these changes have been already 
made in Ridgway's Birds of North and Middle America, Parts 
I. and II. We have used only such as seem to us to be correct 
and likely soon to come into general use and to be recognized 
by the A. O. U. Committee in time. 
Sources of Information. — The records, notes, and obser- 
vations herein given are based principally upon our own 
collections and personal work in the field, covering a large 
part of the time for periods of thirty-five and fifteen years, 
respectively. In this time work has been done, more or less 
thorough, over a large portion of the State. While the'greater 
part by far of the time has been spent in the southeastern 
counties of Jefferson, Rock, Dane, Milwaukee, Waukesha and 
Walworth, trips have been made, allowing of extended observa- 
tions and collections, along the entire length of the shores of 
Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, the Michigan border, and 
to different points along the Mississippi River, as well as in a 
goodly number of the central counties. Added to this, and 
perhaps of even greater value, has been the use of the extended, 
accurate and perfectly authentic notes of the late Thure 
Kumlien, covering a period of constant residence in the state 
of nearly forty-five years, from 1844 to 1888, making, with the 
time spent by us in similar work, a total period of sixty years 
of constant observation, embracing nearly all parts of the state 
and especially complete for the southeastern portion. Besides 
the personal acquaintance of the late Dr. P. R. Hoy and 
Capt. B. F. Goss, we have had the benefit of many letters from 
these gentlemen to Thure and L. Kumlien for many years. 
These letters, in many cases, have been of great value in verify- 
ing records, and have furnished valuable notes. Mr. J. N. 
Clark, of Meridian, Dunn County, has contributed a list of the 
birds noted in that section of the state during over sixteen 
years of active and careful work, with copious notes on such 
species as we have especially inquired about. The collections 
of the Milwaukee Public Museum and of a number of private 
ornithologists have been carefully gone over. 
The published lists of Wisconsin birds have been of great 
service. Especially worthy of mention in this connection are 
the following: "Notes on the Ornithology of Wisconsin," by 
P. R. Hoy, M. D., corrected and reprinted from the Proceed- 
ings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in the 
Transactions of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, 
