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<h6>BIRDS</h6>
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<p><strong>VOLUME III.</strong></p>
<p><strong>No 1.</strong></p>
<p><strong>January 1898</strong></p>
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<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2>
<p>With the January number of <span class="smcap">Birds</span>, we enter upon a new year with the
satisfaction of having pleased our readers, as well as rendered an actual service
to the cause of education, ornithological literature, and art. Among the
hundreds of testimonials from competent judges, (many of them scientists),
which we have received, we will permit ourselves the use of one only, as
exemplifying the excellence which we have sought to attain and the rightful
claim which we may make for the future. The writer says: “I find <span class="smcap">Birds</span>
an everlasting source of pleasure to the children, not less than to myself. I
have one of the few almost absolutely <em>fresh</em> copies of ‘Audubon’s Birds,’ for
which I have refused $3,000, besides later works, and I will say that the
pictures of birds given in your magazine are infinitely more true to life, and
more pleasing, everyway, than any of those presented in either work. The
other day I compared some of your pictures with the birds mounted by myself,
notably a Wood-duck and a Wood-cock, and every marking co-incided. The
photographs might have been taken from my own specimens, so accurately
were they delineated, attesting the truth of your work.”</p>
<p>Some of our subscribers, unaware of the prodigality with which nature has
scattered birds throughout the world, have asked whether the supply of
specimens may not soon be exhausted. Our answer is, that there are many
thousands of rare and attractive birds, all of them interesting for study, from
which, for years to come, we might select many of the loveliest forms and
richest plumage. Of North American birds alone there are more than twelve
hundred species.</p>
<p>The success of <span class="smcap">Birds</span> is due to its superior color illustrations and the
unique treatment of the text. Popular and yet scientific, it is interesting to
old and young alike.</p>
<p>The classification and nomenclature followed are those adopted by the
American Ornithological Union in 1895.</p>
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<span class="smcap">Nature Study Publishing Company.</span></p>
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<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</SPAN></span></p>
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