Key to North American birds Volume 1 ; Containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent ... and Lower California, with which are

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 Excerpt: ...Key to the Genera" proved scarcely so satisfactory as I hoped it would be. It undertook too much, to conduct the student at once down to the intricacies of the very many modern genera, not all of which can by any possibility be characterized intelligibly in a line of type. I have probably simplified and expedited matters by preparing on the same plan Keys to the Orders and Sub-orders, and to the Families. Then in the body of the work, under each head, further analyses are given when such seems to be required,--of families under their orders or sub-orders, of genera under" their families, and of species under their genera. These ulterior analyses are for the most part rather natural than artificial, though I never hesitate to seize upon any character that may furnish the desired clue to identification. The artificial Keys immediately following will take the student to the families, with reference to the page of the work where such groups come; on turning to which, further analyses will be found, generally down to species and even varieties. They are to be used as follows after the preceding lessons have been learned):--We have in hand a bird we do not know, and the name of which we wish to ascertain. Suppose it to be'that common species which builds the nest of mud upon the bough of the apple-tree and lays greenish-blue eggs. To what family does it belong t The Key opens with an arbitrary division of our birds according to the number and position of their toes. Our specimen, we see, has four toes, three in front, one behind. It therefore comes under IV. Going to IV., we read: Hind toe--inserted above the level of the rest, etc--not inserted above the level of the rest.... (Go to B J Our specimen has the hind toe not inserted above the level of the ...