In presenting this work to the public, the author deems it but reasonable that his patrons should be placed in full possession of the facts and circumstances which have induced him to undertake so presuming and (to him) so hazardous an enterprise. When the publication of the " Revised List of the Birds of Central New York" was an accomplished fact, many, into whose hands it was placed, suggested to him the propriety of describing and illustrating some, if not all of the birds contained therein. He felt that to truthfully and thoroughly execute the first proposition, was beyond his power...