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PREFACE. 
Since the time of Linne however, great attention has been 
paid to American Ornithology, and very numerous contributions 
made to the Fauna of the United States, particularly in the 
standard works of Pennant and Latham. As all these are 
embodied in Latham’s vast compilation, the Index Ornithologicus, 
we shall take that as our guide. We there find that no less 
than four hundred and sixty-four species are set down as North 
American! It is hardly necessary to remark how greatly sur¬ 
charged with nominal species this number must be, when we 
consider that after the lapse of many years, and the addition of 
so many genuine species by Wilson and ourselves, the number 
we admit is still short of four hundred. A work professing to 
review with care the North American part of Latham’s Index , 
species by species, on the plan of our “Observations on the 
Nomenclature of Wilson’s Ornithology,” is still a desideratum; 
and if executed with accuracy and judgment, would be as advan¬ 
tageous to science, as arduous for the naturalist who should 
undertake it. For the present, leaving what we have to say 
concerning the water birds to the volume wherein they are to 
be especially treated of, we shall content ourselves with stating, 
that out of Latham’s four hundred and sixty-four species, two 
hundred and sixty-nine are land birds. Of these, one hundred 
and fifty at most are admitted by us, and though it would not be 
difficult to prove nominal about sixty, there will still remain 
about sixty others, whose habitat is false, or which are not 
sufficiently investigated. Such is the state of things to which 
we call the attention of ornithologists. 
However this may be, Wilson only described two hundred and 
seventy species, of which one hundred and seventy-nine were 
land birds. Sixteen more are added in the first volume of this 
work. The second and third will contain an additional sixteen, 
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