The present work is designed to meet the want, which has long been
felt, of a descriptive account of the Birds of North America, with
notices of their geographical distribution, habits, methods of
nesting, character of eggs, their popular nomenclature, and other
points connected with their life history.
For many years past the only systematic treatises bearing upon this
subject have been “The American Ornithology” of Alexander Wilson,
finished by that author in 1814, and brought down to the date of 1827
by George Ord; the “Ornithological Biography” of Audubon, bearing date
of 1838, with a second edition, “Birds of America,” embracing a little
more of detail, and completed in 1844; and “A Manual of the
Ornithology of the United States and Canada,” by Nuttall, of which a
first edition was published in 1832 and a second in 1840. Since then
no work relating to American Ornithology, of a biographical nature,
has been presented to the public, with the exception of some of
limited extent, such as those of Giraud, on the “Birds of Long
Island,” in 1844; De Kay’s “Birds of New York,” 1844; Samuels’s
“Ornithology and Oölogy of New England,” 1868, and a few others;
together with quite a number of minor papers on the birds of
particular localities, of greater or less moment, chiefly published in
periodicals and the Proceedings of Societies. The reports of many of
the government exploring parties also contain valuable data,
especially those of Dr. Newberry, Dr. Heermann, Dr. J. G. Cooper, Dr.
Suckley, Dr. Kennerly, and others.
More recently (in 1870) Professor Whitney, Chief of the Geological
Survey of California, has published a very important volume on the
ornithology of the entire west coast of North America, written by Dr.
J. G. Cooper, and containing much original detail in reference to the
habits of the western species. This is by far the most valuable
contribution to the biography of American birds that has appeared
since the time of Audubon, and, with its typographical beauty and
numerous and excellent illustrations, all on wood and many of them
colored, constitutes one of the most noteworthy publications in
American Zoölogy.
Up to the time of the appearance of the work of Audubon, nearly all
that was known of the great region of the United States west of the
Missouri River was the result of the journey of Lewis and Clark up the
Missouri and across to the Pacific Coast, and that of John K. Townsend
and Mr. Nuttall, both of whom made some collections and brought back
notices of the country, which, however, they were unable to explore to
any great extent. The entire region of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado,
Arizona, Nevada, and California was unvisited, as also a great portion
of territory north of the United States boundary, including British
Columbia and Alaska.
A work by Sir John Richardson, forming a volume in his series of
“Fauna Boreali-Americana,” in reference to the ornithology of the
region covered by the Hudson Bay Company’s operations, was published
in 1831, and has been much used by Mr. Audubon, but embraces little or
nothing of the great breeding-grounds of the water birds in the
neighborhood of the Great Slave and Bear Lakes, the Upper Yukon, and
the shores of the Arctic coast.
It will thus be seen that a third of a century has elapsed since any
attempt has been made to present a systematic history of the birds of
North America.
The object of the present work is to give, in as concise a form as
possible, an account of what is known of the birds, not only of the
United States, but of the whole region of North America north of the
boundary-line of Mexico, including Greenland, on the one side, and
Alaska with its islands on the other. The published materials for such
a history are so copious that it is a matter of surprise that they
have not been sooner utilized, consisting, as they do, of numerous
scattered biographies and reports of many government expeditions and
private explorations. But the most productive source has been the
great amount of manuscript contained in the archives of the
Smithsonian Institution in the form of correspondence, elaborate
reports, and the fieldnotes of collectors and travellers, the use of
which, for the present work, has been liberally allowed by Professor
Henry. By far the most important of these consist of notes made by the
late Robert Kennicott in British America, and received from him and
other gentlemen in the Hudson Bay Territory, who were brought into
intimate relationship with the Smithsonian Institution through Mr.
Kennicott’s efforts. Among them may be mentioned more especially Mr.
R. MacFarlane, Mr. B. R. Ross, Mr. James Lockhart, Mr. Lawrence Clark,
Mr. Strachan Jones, and others, whose names will appear in the course
of the work. The especial value of the communications received from
these gentlemen lies in the fact that they resided for a long time in
a region to which a large proportion of the rapacious and water birds
of North America resort during the summer for incubation, and which
until recently has been sealed to explorers.
Equally serviceable has been the information received from the region
of the Yukon River and Alaska generally, including the Aleutian
Islands, as supplied by Messrs. Robert Kennicott, William H. Dall,
Henry M. Bannister, Henry W. Elliott, and others.
It should be understood that the remarks as to the absence of general
works on American Ornithology, since the time of Audubon, apply only
to the life history of the species, as, in 1858, one of the authors of
the present work published a systematic account of the birds of North
America, constituting Vol. IX. of the series of Pacific Railroad
Reports; while from the pen of Dr. Elliott Coues, a well-known and
eminent ornithologist, appeared in 1872 a comprehensive volume,
entitled “A Key to North American Birds,” containing descriptions of
the species and higher groups.
The technical, or descriptive, matter of the present work has been
prepared by Messrs. Baird and Ridgway, that relating to the _Raptores_
entirely by Mr. Ridgway; and all the accounts of the habits of the
species are from the pen of Dr. Brewer. In addition to the matter
supplied by these gentlemen, Professor Theodore N. Gill has furnished
that portion of the Introduction defining the class of birds as
compared with the other vertebrates; while to Dr. Coues is to be given
the entire credit for the pages embracing the tables of the Orders and
Families, as well as for the Glossary beginning on page 535 of Vol.
III.
Nearly all the drawings of the full-length figures of birds contained
in the work were made directly on the wood, by Mr. Edwin L. Sheppard,
of Philadelphia, from original sketches taken from nature; while the
heads were executed for the most part by Mr. Henry W. Elliott and Mr.
Ridgway. Both series have been engraved by Mr. Hobart H. Nichols of
Washington. The generic outlines were drawn by Anton L. Schönborn, and
engraved by the peculiar process of Jewett, Chandler, & Co., of
Buffalo. All of these, it is believed, speak for themselves, and
require no other commendation.
A considerable portion of the illustrations were prepared, by the
persons mentioned above, for the Reports of the Geological Survey of
California, and published in the volume on Ornithology. To Professor
Whitney, Chief of the Survey, acknowledgments are due for the
privilege of including many of them in the present History of North
American Birds, and also for the Explanation of Terms, page 526 of
Vol. III.
A few cuts, drawn by Wolf and engraved by Whymper, first published in
“British Birds in their Haunts,” and credited in their proper places,
were kindly furnished by the London Society for the Diffusion of
Christian Knowledge; and some others prepared for an unpublished
volume by Dr. Blasius, on the Birds of Germany, were obtained from
Messrs. Vieweg and Son, of Braunschweig.
The volume on the Water Birds is in an advanced state of preparation,
and will be published with the least possible delay.