Check-List of Birds of the World Volume Xiv
HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF THE Museum of Comparative Zoology ivtUS. COMP. ZOOU LIBRARY DEC 1 1 1968 HARVARD JUNlVERS.IX>!i CHECK-LIST OF BIRDS OF THE WORLD VOLUME XIV CHECK-LIST OF BIRDS OF THE WORLD A Continuation of the Work of James L. Peters Edited by RAYMOND A. PAYNTER, JR. In consultation with Ernst Mayr VOLUME XIV Parulidae Drepanididae Vireonidae Icteridae Fringillinae Carduelinae Estrildidae Viduinae By EMMET R. BLAKE, JAMES C. GREENWAY, JR. THOMAS R. HOWELL, GEORGE H. LOWERY, JR. ERNST MAYR, BURT L. MONROE, JR., RAYMOND A. PAYNTER, JR., AUSTIN L. RAND, AND MELVIN A. TRAYLOR CAMBRIDGE • MASSACHUSETTS MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY 1968 COPYRIGHT, 1968 BY THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OP HARVARD COLLEGE .on MUS. COM P. ZOOL. LIBRARY DEC 1 1 it.ob HARVARD UNIVERSITY^ THE HEFFERNAN PRESS, INC. WORCESTER, MASS. INTRODUCTION The eight taxa covered in this volume (Parulidae, Drepan- ididae, Vireonidae, Icteridae, Fringillidae, CardueHnae, Es- trildidae, and Viduinae) contain only about six percent of the living species of birds, but these are among the best known of the entire class. For many of these species there is comparatively abundant information on their natural his- tory, general biology, physiology, ethology, and even genet- ics. A comparable amount of data could not be found for any similar assemblage of birds. However, in spite of the abun- dance of taxonomically useful information, or more probably because of it, the systematics of these birds are among the most unsettled and controversial in the Class Aves. One would hope that each volume of the Check-list would have a useful life span of at least a few decades.
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