Plate 28: Semipalmated Sandpiper, Sanderling, Least Sandpiper “The Semipalmated Sandpiper is the little Sand-peep of New England beaches. It runs along the beach, its little blackish legs twinkling over the wet sands, advancing and retreating with the wash of the surf.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 59: Northern Raven, Fish Crow, Crow “Our Raven is merely a geographical race of the ancient Raven of the Old World, and that bird of sinister appearance was regarded as a mysterious and semi-sacred being by peoples of the long ago.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 12: Mallard, Black Duck, Red-legged Black Duck, Gadwall “The Black Duck is very much alive in every sense, and extremely active. It has many game qualities. It does not, like many ducks, drag itself slowly from the water into the air with laboring wings and splattering feet, but springs up at a bound.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 2: Red-throated Loon, Loon “Midway of the wide bay where the seas are running high and wildly tossing their white tops, with a wintry gale whipping the spray from them in smoky gusts, the Loon rests at ease, head to the wind and sea like a ship at anchor. The tossing and the tumult disturb him not, as he rides, light as a birch canoe.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 6: Herring Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Sabine's Gull, Bonaparte's Gull, Laughing Gull “Although [the Bonaparte's Gull] seems fitted only to play in the sunlight amid summer zephyrs, it has wonderful powers of flight and is hardy enough to breast the storms and raging seas of winter along our coast.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 17: King Eider, Northern Eider, Harlequin Duck, Eider “Harlequin! Rightly named, fantastically decorated, but nevertheless in beauty second only to the Wood Duck. The bird is so elegant that the people of the north coasts have well named its little companies the ‘Lords and Ladies’ of the sea.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 32: Oystercatcher, Killdeer, American Black-bellied Plover, American Golden Plover “While the tide is out [the American Black-bellied Plovers] run about with heads up, apparently without aim or purpose, but now and then one thrusts its open bill down into sand or water and pulls up a long marine worm.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 7: Black Skimmer, Sooty Tern, Caspian Tern, Royal Tern “Among the vast hordes of sea-birds nesting in the great colonies of the southern Atlantic and Gulf coasts, [the Caspian tern] may be seen climbing the air on its long, strong wings, its big, red bill wide open, yelling out its loud raucous cry of defiance.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 16: Old-squaw, Buffle-head, Golden-eye, Barrow's Golden Eye “Old-squaws are perhaps our most loquacious ducks. Their resounding cries have been likened to the music of a pack of hounds.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 68: Vesper Sparrow, Henslow's Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Ispwich Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow “A Bluebird warbles his soft love song as he flutters from tree to tree in the old orchard, and far away, from the hill pasture, comes an ‘earth-song,’ a pastoral plaintive and sweet, the fine strain of the Vesper Sparrow.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 93: Bluebird, Robin “Hot or cold, wet or dry, the Robin sings. He makes himself at home in the back yard; he hops about on the lawn; he knows all the folks and they all know him.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 61: Orchard Oriole, Baltimore Oriole, Meadowlark “A thousand orchards are in bloom, and among their tinted blossoms the resplendent [Baltimore Orioles] with songs of joy weave in and out. Ever in New England this beautiful, elegantly formed bird is associated with blooming apple orchards, and with peach and cherry blossoms.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 31: Willet, Upland Plover, Western Willet, Buff-breaster Sandpiper “That long-drawn, rolling, mellow whistle as the [Upland Plover] mounts high in air has the sad quality of the November wind. Except the wail of the wind there is nothing else like it in nature.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 3: Black Guillemot, Puffin, Razor-billed Auk, Dovekie, Brunnich's Murre “The serio-comic appearance of the little feathered clown is laughable. … The [Puffin] stands erect like a little soldier, its red splay feet slightly straddled and planted firmly on the rock, resting not on its tail and tarsi, but standing up high and clear.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 26: Purple Sandpiper, Knot, Stilt Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper “[The Purple Sandpiper] lives by the wintry sea, seemingly revelling in the commotion of the waters, feeding at low tide among the rockweed and when overtaken by the oncoming surge merely running and fluttering up the rocks to safety.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 5: Great Black-backed Gull, Glaucous Gull, Kittiwake, Kumlien's Gull, Iceland Gull “This lovely white bird is courageous, attacking even the polar bear in defense of its young; but [the Ivory Gull] is a voracious scavenger, a foul feeder, subsisting on blubber, dead fish, dead whales, shellfish, small rodents, garbage thrown from ships and even the excrement of seals.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 11: Hooded Merganser, Red-breasted Merganser, Merganser “Few New England ducks are handsomer in life than an adult male Merganser.” —Edward Howe Forbush

Plate 52: Red-bellied Woodpecker, Red-headed Woodpecker, Northern Flicker “[The Red-headed Woodpecker] is the most striking of our woodpeckers, clothed in red, white and blue. With the dark blue gloss of its back appearing black at a distance and its colors in masses and strongly contrasted, it is a conspicuous bird.” —Edward Howe Forbush