In the "Foreword" of this book I express my grateful appreciation to Dr.
A. K. Fisher and Mr. E. H. Forbush for permission to use extracts from
published works. I wish to add my thanks to Dr. Charles Richmond and Mr.
Joseph Riley of the National Museum of Washington, for their courtesy in
furnishing me with bird-skins from the National Museum collections and a
copy of the A. O. U. Check-list of 1910, used for the descriptions and
ranges of the birds described in the text.
I am indebted to Dr. John M. Clarke, Director of the State Museum of the
University of New York, for the permission to make selections from
Eaton's "Birds of New York"; also to Dr. Francis H. Herrick, of Western
Reserve University, and Dr. Alexander Wetmore, of the Biological Survey,
for the right to quote from their publications.
The selections from John Burroughs, Thoreau, Frank Bolles, Dallas Lore
Sharp, Florence Merriam, Olive Thorne Miller, Henry W. Longfellow, E. R.
Sill, Celia Thaxter, Lucy Larcom, and Edna Dean Proctor, are used by
permission of, and by special arrangement with, The Houghton Mifflin
Co., the authorized publishers. Three selections from Wilson Flagg's
"Birds of New England" are used by special arrangement with the Page Co.
of Boston.
To the Courtesy of D. Appleton & Co. I am indebted for the right to
quote one stanza of Bryant's "To a Waterfowl," dates and selections from
Frank M. Chapman's "Birds of Eastern North America"; to G. P. Putman's
Sons for the use of three extracts from Dr. Herrick's "Home Life of Wild
Birds," and to Charles Scribner's Sons for Henry van Dyke's rendering of
the song sparrow's song. I acknowledge also with thanks my obligation to
Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson, for his permission to use six color-plates of
the National Association of Audubon Societies and to quote from the
Educational Leaflets of the Society.
To my friends, Dallas Lore Sharp, Mrs. Sylvester D. Judd, and Miss
Harriet E. Richards, I desire to express my deep appreciation of their
suggestions and criticisms. I am indebted to Mr. James P. Chapin,
Assistant-Curator at the American Museum of Natural History, New York,
for a critical reading of the manuscript.