Excerpt from The Birds of the Cambridge Region of Massachusetts The present Memoir was undertaken upwards of ten years ago at the request of the Nuttall Ornithological Club. For reasons which need not be mentioned here, its progress has been vexatiously slow, and what is still more unfortunate its completion at, the present time has been made possible only by the sacrifice of certain historical features contemplated in its original plan. Nevertheless, it is hoped that the paper will prove of use to the members of the Club, as well as to other persons especially interested in the ornithology of the Cambridge Region. No attempt has been made to give full life histories of the birds. On the contrary, I have abstained from saying anything about their habits, songs, etc., save in cases where some mention of these and kindred matters has seemed essential to a clearer understanding of the reasons governing the local occurrence or distribution of certain of the species, or desirable for the purpose of rendering commonplace or otherwise tedious details more attractive. What I have had chiefly in mind has been to state as definitely as possible the times and seasons when each species has been noted, the numbers in which it has occurred, at long past as well as in very recent times, and the precise character and, in some instances also, situation of its favorite local haunts. In addition to my own record books, covering upwards of forty years of more or less continuous observation, those of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, which extend as far back as 1873, have been freely consulted. Several of the members of the Club, as wellas a few of my other ornithological friends, have also placed their personal field notes quite at my disposal. Among those to whom I am indebted for assistance of this and other kinds may be mentioned Mr. G.M. Allen, Mr. Outram Bangs, Mr. C.F. Batchelder, Mr. Harold Bowditch, Dr. A. P.Chadbourne, Mr. Walter Deane, Mr. RichardS. Eustis, Mr. Walter Faxon, Mr. William P.Hadley, Mr. John H.Hardy, Jr., Mr. Hemy W.Henshaw, Mr. Ralph Hoffmann, Mr. W.A. Jeffries, Mr. F.H. Kennard, Mr. Charles R.Lamb, Mr. Oliver Ames Lothrop, Mr. C.J. Maynard, Mr. F.B. McKechnie, Miss Bertha T.Parker, Mr. H.M. Spelman, Dr. C.W. Townsend, Mr. Howard M.Turner, Dr. Walter Woodman, and others whose names appear in the following pages. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.