PREFACE. 
v 
That important part of the work, the colouring of the plates, has not 
been intrusted to inexperienced persons, but has throughout been 
executed from nature by Mr. A. Rider himself, whose talents as an 
artist are well known. The superior typographical execution is to 
be attributed to the extraordinary and vigilant attention of the 
publisher, Mr. S. A. Mitchell. 
To my friends Mr. Thomas Say, and Dr. John D. Godman, my 
sincere thanks are due, for the care they have bestowed in prevent¬ 
ing the introduction of foreign expressions, or phrases not idiomatic, 
into my composition. 
No exertion will be spared which tends to the completion of a 
perfect Ornithology of the United States, and a journey will be 
undertaken towards the north, and perhaps another to the west, 
for the purpose of obtaining the birds of those regions. 
As the birds of Florida were principally wanting, and it is even 
supposed that several of those belonging to Cuba, and other West 
India Islands, may occasionally resort to the southern part of Flo¬ 
rida, and thus be entitled to a place in our work, a painter-naturalist 
was selected to visit that part of the union which Wilson had been 
so desirous of exploring. A better choice could not have been made 
than that of Mr. Titian Peale, whose zeal in the cause of natural 
history had previously induced him to join those useful citizens, who, 
under the command of that excellent officer Major Long, explored 
the western wilds as far as the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Peale’s 
success in that expedition, where he procured and drew on the 
spot almost all the new birds contained in this volume, will warrant 
us in anticipating much from his exertions in Florida. 
We expect that our American Ornithology will extend to three 
volumes, so, that with the nine previously published by Wilson, the 
whole subject will be embraced in twelve. The present volume 
contains land birds only; and in evidence of Wilson’s industry we 
may state, that we have been unable to adduce a new Pennsylvanian 
bird. For the contents of this volume, we have been obliged to 
