ADVERTISEMENT. 
The present work is, in part, a reprint of the General Report on North American Birds 
presented to the Department of War, and published in October, 1858, as one of the series 
of "Reports of Explorations and Surveys of a Railroad Route to the Pacific Ocean." In 
this volume, however, will be found many important additions and corrections, including 
detailed lists of plates, both numerical and systematic, descriptions of newly-discovered 
species, &c, not in the original edition. 
The Atlas contains one hundred plates, representing one hundred and forty-eight new or 
unfigured species of North American birds. Of these plates about fifty appear for the 
first time, having been prepared expressly for this work. The remainder form the ornitho- 
logical illustrations of the Reports of the Pacific Railroad Survey, and of the United States 
and Mexican Boundary Survey under Major Emory, and are distributed throughout the 
numerous volumes composing those series. All have, however, been carefully retouched 
and lettered for this edition, and quite a number redrawn entirely from better and more 
characteristic specimens. In fact, the plates of the Atlas have been prepared expressly 
for the present edition with the utmost care and attention. 
In the volume of text will be found a complete account of the birds of North America, 
brought down to the present time, including accurate descriptions of all known species : 
their arrangement in the genera and families recognized by modern zoologists ; their 
geographical distribution ; and, as far as possible, all other information necessary to a 
complete summary or manual of North American ornithology. No other work extant gives 
a complete ornithology of our country; and it has been the especial object of the authors 
and publishers to adapt it to the wants of the student and lover of nature, and to present 
in a condensed form, and at a price within the reach of all, a reliable text-book in this 
favorite department of natural history. Extended bibliographical notices, embracing full 
references to very nearly all authors on American ornithology, have been added, and will 
be found to be of high interest to the student and naturalist. 
The Atlas, embracing as it does one hundred plates of birds not figured by Audubon, 
will be found indispensable to the possessor of that distinguished author's "Birds of 
America," completing it to the present time. 
As stated in the preface, the descriptions and figures in the present work have been 
taken almost entirely from specimens in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution. To 
the Secretary of the Institution the publishers are under many obligations for facilities in 
the preparation of this much-extended and greatly-improved edition. 
