PREFACE. 
I HAVE been induced to present this Volume to the Public 
by two considerations. The figures and descriptions con- 
tained in the works entitled “ The Birds of America,” and 
“ Ornithological Biography, or an Account of the Habits of 
the Birds of the United States,” having been issued in the 
miscellaneous manner which was thought best adapted to the 
occasion, or which was rendered necessary by circumstances, 
seemed to require a systematic index, in which the nomen- 
clature should be corrected, and the species arranged agree- 
ably to my present views. This Synopsis, then, will afford 
a methodical catalogue of all the species hitherto discovered 
in the vast regions, extending from the northern confines 
of Mexico to the Polar Seas, and which have been described, 
and, with few exceptions, depicted in the works above 
named. Another important object has been to present an 
arrangement of these birds, so characterized, that a person 
desirous of studying them, might, without much difficulty, 
be enabled to discover their names, and trace some of the 
most important features in their organization. 
The species are disposed into genera and families ; and, 
although the location of the groups is not such as, in all re- 
