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THE HE present volume is intended to supply a want much felt by the author during the course of his ornithological studies, and therefore presumably experienced by other workers in the same field; namely, a nomenclature of colors and a compendious dictionary of technical terms used in descriptive ornithology, together with a series of plates or diagrams illustrating the external anatomy of a bird in relation to the terms employed, and such other things as are more clearly expressed by a picture than by a mere definition. Probably few, if any, naturalists have not on more than one occasion deplored the absence of such an aid to their studies; for it is very difficult, if not impossible, for any one to keep all these things clearly in mind.

Undoubtedly one of the chief desiderata of naturalists, both professional and amateur, is a means of identifying the various shades of colors named in descriptions, and of being able to determine exactly what name to apply to a particular tint which it is desired to designate in an original description. No modern work of this character, it appears, is extant,-the latest publication of the kind which the author has been able to consult being Syme's edition of" Werner's Nomenclature of Colors," published