PREFACE. 
viii 
have had another motive in the preparation of this 
work besides that of preserving Nuttall’s biographies. 
Some time ago I made a promise to several Canadian 
friends to prepare a book treating of Canadian birds 
that would be scientifically correct and at the same time 
“ popular” in its style. So while writing these pages 
I have kept Canadian readers constantly in mind, and 
have given here an account of every species that has 
been found within the Dominion east of the Manitoba 
plains, together with their Canadian distribution. 
The limits of a “ hand-book ” demanding the most 
rigid economy of space, when treating of so extensive 
a subject I have been compelled to omit those species 
which occur only to the westward of the Mississippi 
valley, though I have endeavored to make mention of 
every bird that has occurred within this Eastern Faunal 
Province, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, 
and to give their distribution and breeding area so far 
as these are known. Nuttall knew very little about 
the Western birds, and therefore only a few short 
chapters of his have been lost through restricting the 
scope of the present work to Eastern forms. 
The nomenclature adopted is that of the “ Check- 
List” issued by the American Ornithologists’ Union. 
The sequence of species is that arranged by Nuttall, 
with some few trifling alterations; and being radically 
different from that of recent authors, the student must 
be referred to other works for guidance in classification 
as well as for diagnoses of the higher groups. Coues’ 
“Key to North American Birds” is a useful work, and 
contains matter not obtainable elsewhere, though the 
