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Like its four predecessors, this fifth edition of Ornithology in Laboratory and Field is intended for use at the college or university level and assumes that students need have only a background knowledge of general biology. Although the book makes no pretense of covering the realm of ornithology, it treats those major aspects of the science that can be studied during a course in the regular academic year or in the summer. There are twenty-two chapters, all more or less independent units. Even though they are presented in a fairly logical sequence, they can be taken up in almost any order, and some may be omitted altogether without affecting the value of the others. The instructor may wish to select parts of the book without regard to sequence that will best supplement class work or suit the season of the year during which the course is given. With few exceptions each chapter concludes with references. While many references are cited in the preceding text of each chapter, many more are included to support or supplement the text, to give views contrary to statements in the text, or to suggest further reading. If the titles are not cited from the text or the titles themselves do not indicate the reasons for their inclusion, they are annotated parenthetically. Students should make a practice of perusing the references after reading the preceding text