APPENDIX 
For the use of beginners who do not collect and have not access to 
collections of skins, and who may consequently find the technical keys 
difficult, the following color key has been made to the more conspicuous 
birds one meets in the field. Its use by any one who has skins to consult 
is earnestly deprecated, as it is much better to work a little harder and 
learn more — to begin at the beginning, with ‘ Keys to Orders,’ and follow 
through to the species, so learning something of the classification of birds, 
something of their fundamental relations, rather than to find their mere 
names arbitrarily by the use of purely superficial characters. 
FIELD COLOR KEY TO GENERA OF SOME OF THE 
COMMON PASSERINE BIRDS. 
(All birds preceding the Order Passeres are omitted, including all the 
water birds, grouse, quail, turkeys, doves, hawks, owls, cuckoos, kingfish¬ 
ers, woodpeckers, goatsuckers, swifts, and hummingbirds.) 
ADULT MALES IN BREEDING PLUMAGE. 
BIRDS WITH PLUMAGE PARTLY OR WHOLLY 
I. BLACK. IV. BLUE. 
II. YELLOW. V. GREEN. 
III. RED. VI. BROWN OR GRAY. 
I. BIRDS WITH BLACK IN PLUMAGE. 
1. Plumage mainly or wholly black. 
2. Wholly black (with more or less gloss). 
3. Length about 16-26 . Crows and Ravens ; see Corvus, p. 279. 
3'. Length about 8.20-13.50. 
4. Tail even, not folded laterally. 
Brewer and Rusty Blackbirds ; see Scolecophagus, p. 299. 
4'. Tail graduated, folded laterally. 
Grackles ; see Quiscalus , p. 301. 
2'. Mainly black. 
3. Under parts largely white. 
