Chapter I: Front Matter

BIRD BIOGRAPHIES
A GUIDE-BOOK FOR BEGINNERS

An Introduction to 150 Common Land Birds of the Eastern United States

BY
ALICE E. BALL
Author of "A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS"

ILLUSTRATED BY
ROBERT BRUCE HORSFALL
Painter of Backgrounds in Habitat, Groups American Museum of Natural
History New York City

56 COLORED PLATES

NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1923

Copyright, 1923.
By DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, Inc.
PRINTED IN U. S. A.

VAIL-BALLOU COMPANY
BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK

TO MY FRIEND
ELIZABETH JONES
IN LOVING ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HER UNTIRING AID, UNWAVERING FAITH, AND
INSPIRING CRITICISM
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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.