INTRODUCTION. 



Of all the classes of animals by which we are surrounded in 

 the ample field of nature, there are none more remarkable in their 

 appearance and habits than the feathered inhabitants of the air. 

 They play aj-ound us like fairy spirits, elude approach in an element 

 which defies our pursmt, soar out of sight in the yielding sky, 

 journey over our heads in marshalled ranks, dart like meteors 

 in the sunshine of summer, or seeking the solitary recesses of the 

 forest and the waters, they glide before us like beings of fancy. 

 They diversify the still landscape with the most lively motion 

 and beautiful association ; they come and go with the chano-e of 

 the season, and as their actions are directed by an uncontrollable 

 instinct of provident nature, they may be considered as concomitant 

 with the beauty of the surrounding scene. With what grateful 

 sensations do we involuntarily hail the arrival of these faithful mes- 

 sengers of spring and summer, after the lapse of the dreary winter, 

 which compelled them to forsake us for more favored climes. Their 

 songs, now heard from the leafy groves and shadowy forests, inspire 

 delight, or recollections of the pleasing past, in every breast. How 

 volatile, how playfully capricious, how musical and happy, are these 

 roving sylphs of nature, to whom the air, the earth, and the waters 

 are almost alike habitable. Their lives are spent in boundless ac- 

 tion ; and nature, with an omniscient benevolence, has assisted and 

 formed them for this wonderful display of perpetual life and vigor, 

 in an element almost their own. 

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