The distribution of each species is given by islands, arranged alphabetically, with the names of collectors so far as these have been worked out from the available literature. Distribution outside of the Philippine Islands is given in a general way only.
To the descriptions and measurements of the birds are added notes on habits, nests and eggs, abundance, etc. and in very many cases manuscript notes by Bourns and Worcester, giving information on habits, colors of soft parts, measurements, and validity of species.
All measurements are in the metric system. In copied descriptions inches and hundredths have been carefully reduced to millimeters and the English measurements omitted, tenths and hundredths of millimeters being disregarded in most instances.
In accordance with Canon XXXVII of the Code of Nomenclature adopted by the American Ornithologists’ Union, Revised Edition (1908), generic and specific names, unless evidently misprinted, are spelled as in the original descriptions. Dr. Charles W. Richmond, Assistant Curator, Division of Birds, United States National Museum, has most kindly verified a very large number of these citations.
The last half century has been exceedingly fruitful in systems of classification, some of them excellent, most of them suggestive and helpful. The whole subject has been reviewed in a masterly way by Newton, Dictionary of Birds, London (1896), 45–120 of introduction.
The present author has not the ability to judge of the relative merits of the schemes of classification proposed by various authors but the system set forth in Sharpe’s Hand-List[3] and copied in McGregor and Worcester’s Hand-List of Philippine Birds is followed as being both convenient and well known.
[1] The most important of these lists are the following:
- Martens, E. V.: [Title not seen] Jour. für Ornith. (1866), 8–31.
- Walden, Viscount: A List of Birds Known to Inhabit the Philippine Archipelago. Trans. Zool. Soc. London (1875), 9, pt. 2, 125–252, pls. 23–34.
- Ramsay, R. G. W.: Revised List of the Birds Known to Occur in the Philippine Islands, Showing their Geographical Distribution. Appendix, pp. 653–660, to the Ornithological Works of Arthur, Ninth Marquis of Tweeddale. London (1881).
- Elera, R. P. Fr. Casto de: Aves. Catalogo Sistematico de toda la Fauna de Filipinas. Manila (1895), 1, 52–398.
- Worcester, D. C. and Bourns, F. S.: A List of the Birds Known to Inhabit the Philippine and Palawan Islands, Showing their Distribution within the Limits of the Two Groups. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. Washington (1898), 20, 549–566.
- McGregor, R. C. and Worcester, D. C.: A Hand-List of the Birds of the Philippine Islands. Bur. Govt. Labs. Manila (1906), No. 36, 1–121.