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NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS.
LAND BIRDS.
VOL. I.
CAT BIRD.
(Galeoscoptes carolinensis.)
Adult.
A
HISTORY
OF
NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS
BY
S. F. BAIRD, T. M. BREWER, and R. RIDGWAY
LAND BIRDS
ILLUSTRATED BY 64 PLATES AND 593 WOODCUTS
VOLUME I.
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1905
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874,
BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
Printers
S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, U. S. A.
PREFACE.
The present work is designed to meet the want, which has long beenfelt, of a descriptive account of the Birds of North America, withnotices of their geographical distribution, habits, methods ofnesting, character of eggs, their popular nomenclature, and otherpoints connected with their life history.
For many years past the only systematic treatises bearing upon thissubject have been “The American Ornithology” of Alexander Wilson,finished by that author in 1814, and brought down to the date of 1827by George Ord; the “Ornithological Biography” of Audubon, bearing dateof