II PREFACE. 
dred plates, however, of this volume, about one-half appear for the first time, having been 
prepared expressly for the present work. Many of the latter represent birds of Eastern 
North America. 
As already stated, the work of Mr. Audubon contains figures of somewhat less than five 
hundred species of North American birds ; that of Mr. Cassin contains fifty species. In 
the present volume will be found one hundred and forty-eight species, nearly all of which 
are now represented for the first time in any work on American ornithology. The three 
works together include illustrations of very nearly all the known birds of North America. 
A few species only are wanting, chiefly of Russian America and other remote localities, of 
which no specimens are preserved in American museums. All are carefully described, 
however, in the preceding volume. 
The original specimens of a large majority of the species figured in the present volume 
are in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution, and have been described and figured by 
permission of the Secretary. The collections of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 
delphia, and of the Boston Natural History Society, have also furnished valuable and inter- 
esting types for the same purpose, kindly placed at our disposal. 
m 
