With the January number of BIRDS, we enter upon a new year with the
satisfaction of having pleased our readers, as well as rendered an
actual service to the cause of education, ornithological literature, and
art. Among the hundreds of testimonials from competent judges, (many of
them scientists), which we have received, we will permit ourselves the
use of one only, as exemplifying the excellence which we have sought to
attain and the rightful claim which we may make for the future. The
writer says: "I find BIRDS an everlasting source of pleasure to the
children, not less than to myself. I have one of the few almost
absolutely _fresh_ copies of 'Audubon's Birds,' for which I have refused
$3,000, besides later works, and I will say that the pictures of birds
given in your magazine are infinitely more true to life, and more
pleasing, everyway, than any of those presented in either work. The
other day I compared some of your pictures with the birds mounted
by myself, notably a Wood-duck and a Wood-cock, and every marking
co-incided. The photographs might have been taken from my own specimens,
so accurately were they delineated, attesting the truth of your work."
Some of our subscribers, unaware of the prodigality with which nature
has scattered birds throughout the world, have asked whether the supply
of specimens may not soon be exhausted. Our answer is, that there are
many thousands of rare and attractive birds, all of them interesting
for study, from which, for years to come, we might select many of the
loveliest forms and richest plumage. Of North American birds alone there
are more than twelve hundred species.
The success of BIRDS is due to its superior color illustrations and
the unique treatment of the text. Popular and yet scientific, it is
interesting to old and young alike.
The classification and nomenclature followed are those adopted by the
American Ornithological Union in 1895.