Excerpt from Visitors Guide to the Local Collection of Birds in the American Museum of Natural History, New York City: With an Annotated List of the Birds Known to Occur Within Fifty Miles of New York City

The collection this Guide is intended to accompany has been formed especially to aid students in identifying the birds found in the vicinity of New York City. It occupies Cases S and T, in the north wing, at the southwest corner -of the gallery devoted to North American birds. With a few exceptions all the speci mens contained in it were collected within 50 miles of New York City. The species which we have as yet been unable to secure within these limits are represented temporarily by specimens from the North American collection. The collection of Water Birds 'is for the present restricted to summer resident species. So large a proportion of North American Water Birds are found near New York City, that a local collection of them would to a great extent duplicate the North American collection displayed on the opposite side of the gallery. Species of accidental occurrence, or those which have been found in this vicinity but once or twice, are also excluded from the collection. Their presence would only tend to confuse the student and be apt to give him an erroneous idea of the bird's range.

The birds are labeled in accordance with the system of nomenclature adopted by the American Ornithologists' Union. The number preceding the name of each species is its permanent number in the Union's 'check-l'ist' of North American birds. In the Guide this number follows the name of the species. The birds are placed in the cases in a continuous numerical series and any desired specimen may thus be readily found by its number. As a matter of local interest an asterisk has been placed before those species which have been observed in Central Park.

In the alcove between Cases B and C, in the main bird-hall, will be found a local collection of the nests and eggs of the birds_4.

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