But the scarcer the fruit, the more prized it is; and seldom have I experienced greater pleasures than when on the Florida Keys, under a burning sun, after pushing my bark for miles over a soapy flat, I have striven all day long, tormented by myriads of insects, to procure a heron new to me, and have at length succeeded in my efforts. And then how amply are the labours of the naturalist compensated, when, after observing the wildest and most distrustful birds, in their remote and almost inaccessible breeding places, he returns from his journeys, and relates his adventures to an interested and friendly audience.

I look forward to the summer of 1838 with an anxious hope that I may then be able to present you with the last plate of my Illustrations, and the concluding volume of my Biographies. To render these volumes as complete as possible, I intend to undertake a journey to the southern and western limits of the Union, with the view of obtaining a more accurate knowledge of the birds of those remote and scarcely inhabited regions. On this tour I shall be accompanied by my youngest son, while the rest of my family will remain in Britain, to direct the progress of my publication.

In concluding these prefatory remarks, I have to inform you that one of the tail-pieces in my second volume, entitled “A Moose Hunt,” was communicated to me by my young friend Thomas Lincoln of Dennisville in Maine; and that it was at his particular request, and much against my wishes, that his name was not mentioned at the time. I have now, however, judged it proper to make this statement.

JOHN J. AUDUBON.

Edinburgh, 1st December 1835.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page
The Canada Goose, Anser canadensis,[1]
The Red-throated Diver,Colymbus septentrionalis,[20]
The Great Red-breasted Rail, or Fresh-water Marsh-Hen, Rallus elegans,[27]
The Clapper Rail, or Salt-water Marsh-Hen,Rallus crepitans,[33]
The Virginian Rail,Rallus virginianus,[41]
The American Sun Perch,[47]
The Wood Duck,Anas Sponsa,[52]
The Booby Gannet,Sula fusca,[63]
The Esquimaux Curlew,Numenius borealis,[69]
Wilson’s Plover,Charadrius Wilsonius,[73]
The Least Bittern,Ardea exilis,[77]
The Eggers of Labrador,[82]
The Great Blue Heron,Ardea Herodias,[87]
The Common American Gull,Larus zonorhynchus,[98]
The Puffin,Mormon arcticus,[105]
The Razor-billed Auk,Alca Torda,[112]
The Hyperborean Phalarope,Phalaropus hyperboreus,[118]
Fishing in the Ohio,[122]
The Wood Ibis,Tantalus Loculator,[128]
The Louisiana Heron,Ardea ludoviciana,[136]
The Foolish Guillemot,Uria Troile,[142]
The Black Guillemot,Uria Grylle,[148]
The Piping Plover,Charadrius melodus,[154]
The Wreckers of Florida,[158]
The Mallard,Anas Boschas,[164]
The White Ibis,Ibis alba,[173]
The American Oyster-Catcher,Hæmatopus palliatus,[181]
The Kittiwake Gull,Larus tridactylus,[186]
The Kildeer Plover,Charadrius vociferus,[191]
The White Perch and its Favourite Bait,[197]
The Whooping Crane,Grus americana,[202]
The Pintail Duck,Anas acuta,[214]
The Green-winged Teal,Anas Crecca,[219]
The Scaup Duck,Fuligula Marila,[226]
The Sanderling,Tringa arenaria,[231]
A Racoon Hunt in Kentucky,[235]
The Long-billed Curlew,Numenius longirostris,[240]
The Hooded Merganser,Mergus cucullatus,[246]
The Sora Rail,Rallus carolinus,[251]
The Ring-necked Duck,Fuligula rufitorques,[259]
The Sooty Tern,Sterna fuliginosa,[263]
A Wild Horse,[270]
The Night Heron,Ardea Nycticorax,[275]
The Hudsonian Curlew,Numenius hudsonicus,[283]
The Great Marbled Godwit,Limosa Fedoa,[287]
The American Coot,Fulica americana,[291]
The Roseate Tern,Sterna Dougallii,[296]
Reminiscences of Thomas Bewick,[300]
The Great Black-backed Gull,Larus marinus,[305]
The Snowy Heron,Ardea candidissima,[317]
The American Snipe,Scolopax Wilsonii,[322]
The Common Gallinule,Gallinula Chloropus,[330]
The Large-billed Guillemot,Uria Brunnichii,[336]
Pitting of Wolves,[338]
The Eider Duck,Fuligula mollissima,[342]
The Velvet Duck,Fuligula fusca,[354]
The Pied-billed Dobchick,Podiceps carolinensis,[359]
The Tufted Puffin,Mormon cirrhatus,[364]
The Arctic Tern,Sterna arctica,[366]
A Tough Walk for a Youth,[371]
The Brown Pelican,Pelecanus fuscus,[376]
The Florida Cormorant,Phalacrocorax floridanus,[387]
The Pomarine Jager,Lestris pomarinus,[396]
Wilson’s Phalarope,Phalaropus Wilsonii,[400]
The Red Phalarope,Phalaropus fulicarius,[404]
Breaking up of the Ice,[408]
The Reddish Egret,Ardea rufescens,[411]
The Double-crested Cormorant,Phalacrocorax dilophus,[420]
The Hudsonian Godwit,Limosa hudsonica,[426]
The Horned Grebe,Podiceps cornutus,[429]
The Forked-tailed Petrel,Thalassidroma Leachii,[434]
A Maple-sugar Camp,[438]
The Whooping Crane,Grus americana,[441]
The Tropic Bird,Phaeton æthereus,[442]
The Curlew Sandpiper,Tringa subarquata,[444]
The Fulmar Petrel,Procellaria glacialis,[446]
The Buff-breasted Sandpiper,Tringa rufescens,[451]
The Opossum,[454]
The Common Cormorant,Phalacrocorax Carbo,[458]
The Arctic Jager,Lestris parasiticus,[470]
The American Woodcock,Scolopax minor,[474]
The Greenshank,Totanus Glottis,[483]
Wilson’s Petrel,Thalassidroma Wilsonii,[486]
A Long Calm at Sea,[491]
The Frigate Pelican,Tachypetes Aquilus,[495]
Richardson’s Jager,Lestris Richardsonii,[503]
The Cayenne Tern,Sterna cayana,[505]
The Semipalmated Snipe, or Willet,Totanus semipalmatus,[510]
The Noddy Tern,Sterna stolida,[516]
Still Becalmed,[520]
The King Duck,Fuligula spectabilis,[523]
Hutchins’s Goose,Anser Hutchinsii,[526]
Schinz’s Sandpiper,Tringa Schinzii,[529]
The Sandwich Tern,Sterna cantiaca,[531]
The Black Tern,Sterna nigra,[535]
Natchez in 1820,[539]
The Great White Heron,Ardea occidentalis,[542]
The White-winged Silvery Gull,Larus leucopterus,[553]
The Wandering Shearwater,Puffinus cinereus,[555]
The Purple Sandpiper,Tringa maritima,[558]
The Forked-tailed Gull,Larus Sabini,[561]
The Lost Portfolio,[564]
The White-fronted Goose,Anser albifrons,[568]
The Ivory Gull,Larus eburneus,[571]
The Yellowshank,Totanus flavipes,[573]
The Solitary Sandpiper,Totanus chloropygius,[576]
The Red-backed Sandpiper,Tringa alpina,[580]
Labrador,[584]
The Herring Gull,Larus argentatus,[588]
The Crested Grebe,Podiceps cristatus,[595]
The Large-billed Puffin,Mormon glacialis,[599]
The Pectoral Sandpiper,Tringa pectoralis,[601]
The Manks Shearwater,Puffinus Anglorum,[604]
Great Egg Harbour,[606]
The Barnacle Goose,Anser leucopsis,[609]
The Harlequin Duck,Fuligula histrionica,[612]
The Red-necked Grebe,Podiceps rubricollis,[617]
The Dusky Petrel,Puffinus obscurus,[620]
The Golden Plover,Charadrius pluvialis,[623]
Remarks on the Form of the Toes of Birds,[629]

ORNITHOLOGICAL BIOGRAPHY.