328 Remarhs mi Ai^ti>on\ii Uirds fif America, 



logical Biography, or an Account of the habits of the Birds of - 

 the United States of America." It contains, as its title-page ^'^ 

 informs us, " descriptions of the objects represented in the 

 work entitled The Birds of America, interspersed with delinea- 

 tions of American Scenery and Manners." 



For our past and present state of knowledge, we have ' 

 enough of systems. It were better that they who would en- 

 lighten us on the subject of nature's productions, should exa- 

 mine them in the woods than in the closet. Great as is the 

 light that has been thrown upon the anatomical structure of 

 birds, and many as have been the enthusiasts, who in forest 

 and marsh have collected objects for description, little, very 

 little, do we know of the habits and manners of birds, their 

 pursuits, their migrations, and their diversified relations. A 

 single work, written by a Scottish emigrant, presents us with 

 the history, beautifully and accurately told, of many of the 

 birds of a very interesting portion of the globe ; but few have 

 followed in the footsteps of Wilson*, and it would appear few 

 are qualified either to observe or to describe as he has done, the 

 objects of which men now begin generally to profess admiration, 

 the living productions of nature. He who has read the beau- 

 tiful biographies of Wilson, will hardly find pleasure in the un- 

 animated details of most other ornithologists. All the ends of 

 the earth have been searched for nezv birds, as we call thos6' 

 which have never yet been presented to the eye of civilized ^U 

 man, and daily are prepared skins pouring in from the mostt U 

 remote islands of the ocean and the central deserts of the conti- 

 nents ; but the time will be when pilgrimages will be under- 

 taken for the purpose of bringing home, not the knowledge of 

 the existence, but that of the peculiar habits and actions of birds. 

 Observing nature with the eye of an enthusiastic admirer, 

 Mr Audubon has traversed the dark forests of America, fol- 

 lowing the track of the discomfited and disconsolate Indian, has 

 penetrated her cane-brakes and cypress-swamps, teeming with 

 the loathsome and dangerous forms of reptile life, visited her 

 ocean-lakes, wandered by the verdant margins of her magnifi- 



• An edition of Wilson's delightful work, including also that of Gbarles 

 Bonaparte, on the Birds of America, in four volumes, is at present printing 

 in Edinburgh, under the superintendence of Professor Jameson, 



