I cannot express too fully my appreciation of the hearty response which the publishers of these volumes have given to every question concerned with their presentation in an adequate and attractive form, and particularly to Mr. Francis G. Wickware, of D. Appleton and Company, to whose knowledge, skill, and unabated interest the reader, like myself, is indebted in manifold ways. My friend, Mr. Ruthven Deane, well known for his investigations in Auduboniana and American ornithological literature, has not only read the proofs of the text, but has generously placed at my disposal many valuable notes, references, pictures, letters and other documents, drawn from his own researches and valuable personal collections. I wish to express in the most particular manner also my appreciation of the generous spirit in which Mr. Joseph Y. Jeanes has opened the treasures in his possession, embracing not only large numbers of hitherto unpublished letters, but an unrivaled collection of early unpublished Audubonian drawings, for the enrichment and embellishment of these pages. For the loan or transcription of other original manuscript material, or for supplying much needed data of every description, I am further most indebted to Mr. Welton H. Rozier, of St. Louis; Mr. Tom J. Rozier, of Ste. Geneviève; Mr. C. A. Rozier, of St. Louis; the Secretary of the Linnæan Society of London, through my friend, Mr. George E. Bullen, of St. Albans; Mr. Henry R. Rowland of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, of Buffalo; Mr. William Beer, of the Howard Memorial Library, of New Orleans; and Mr. W. H. Wetherill, of Philadelphia. For the use of new photographic and other illustrative material, I am further indebted to Mr. Stanley Clisby Arthur, of the Conservation Commission of Louisiana, and to _Cassinia_, the medium of publication of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club. Through the kindness of Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons I have been permitted to draw rather freely from _Audubon and His Journals_, by Miss Maria R. Audubon and Elliott Coues, and to reproduce three portraits therefrom; original photographs of two of these have been kindly supplied by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt. I also owe to the courtesy of the Girard Trust Company, of Philadelphia, the privilege of quoting certain letters contained in William Healey Dall's _Spencer Fullerton Baird_. To my esteemed colleague, Professor Benjamin P. Bourland, I am under particular obligations for his invaluable aid in revising translations from the French and in the transliteration of manuscripts, as well as for his kindly assistance in correspondence on related subjects. I have derived much benefit also from my sister, Miss Elizabeth A. Herrick, who has made many valuable suggestions. To all others who have aided me by will or deed in the course of this work I wish to express my cordial thanks. FRANCIS H. HERRICK. _Western Reserve University, Cleveland._ July 2, 1917. CONTENTS OF VOLUME I