2 
exactness, “Birds of Eastern Canada” was not intended to be an absolutely 
complete check-list of eastern birds and a number of rare and casually 
occurring species not likely to be seen by the ordinary observer were 
omitted from it or mentioned with little detail. On account of the lack of 
authoritative supplementary books on birds of the west, however, it has 
been deemed advisable to be more comprehensive in this volume. All 
species known to occur in western Canada have been included and all have 
been described with greater detail and exactness. Undoubtedly the large 
number of figures in the text will add considerably to the practical value of 
the work. 
PLAN OF THE BOOK 
The systematic arrangement {See Classification, page 4, and Nomen- 
clature, page 6) used is that of the American Ornithologists’ Union 
Check-list of North American Birds, 3rd edition, 1910, with the supplements 
of 1912, 1920, and 1923 as published in the “Auk” {See page 20). Although 
this arrangement is acknowledged to be faulty and on the point of being 
considerably altered, it has seemed best, in a work of this kind, to adhere 
to it and keep in agreement with the majority of current and past American 
ornithological literature rather than to endeavour to make improvements 
that may be out of harmony with the works of both past and future 
authorities. 
Although the scientific nomenclature and taxonomy of the check-list 
have been followed closely, certain variations from the vernacular adopted 
therein have been made. These, however, are not serious and need cause 
no confusion. They consist mostly in the application of English names to 
the species. That this has, in some cases, necessitated the transference 
of the check-list name of the type or first described subspecies to the more 
inclusive unit is regrettable, but it seems inevitable if we are to express 
true and logical relationship in the vernacular nomenclature. The fact 
is that certain scientific concepts have outgrown the traditional means of 
their popular expression. The original concept was of a species and its 
dependent subspecies as separate entities. The modern one is of a species 
composed of co-ordinate subspecies. Under the earlier idea the form first 
described and named was regarded as the species; later discovered ones 
were viewed as subordinate subspecies departing therefrom. Thus we 
had the Song Sparrow, meaning thereby only the eastern race of Song 
Sparrows and regarding it as the species. The other races, the Dakota 
Song Sparrow, the Busty Song Sparrows, et al, were inferior subspecies. 
This, too, in spite of the self-evident facts that all these are equally Song 
Sparrows of co-ordinate rank; that a first description confers no particular 
taxonomic patent of superiority; and that the form accidentally discovered 
first is in reality no more than one of the races of Song Sparrows which for 
historical and other convenience only, we designate the “type race.” It is in 
fact only the eastern race of a widespread species of Song Sparrow. Under 
the more modern concept, all subspecies combine to form the species, 
which thus may be a group of subspecies the name of which should not 
be limited to any one of its component parts. The current edition 
of the check-list has well presented this in the scientific nomenclature, but 
has failed to adapt to it the vernacular system, which remains under the 
older and discarded concept. 
