VI PREFACE. 



again also been the principal groundwork of the arrange- 

 ment and diagnostic distinctions of the species. 



A more natural disposition of the subject, than the 

 classification I have now adopted, would have been per- 

 haps more gratifying to the learned, but less useful in 

 practice, and more perplexing to the general reader. A 

 numerical system, (binary, quinary, &ic.) however curi- 

 ous and philosophical, yet intricate in its ultimate rela- 

 tions, has the inconvenience at the outset of debarring 

 the majority of students from the attempt to compre- 

 hend a subject so complicated and ambiguous ; and which 

 at the best is but a bewildering and fanciful theory. A 

 strict disposition into natural groups, would have been 

 indispensable in a purely scientific treatise on Birds ; but 

 in a work of this nature, intended for the general Reader, 

 we have given the preference to the more simple arrange- 

 ment of Temminck, which indeed differs little from the 

 artificial classification of Linnaeus and Latham. The 

 difficulty of recollecting, on all occasions, an intricate 

 mass of real and fanciful affinities, renders such methods 

 of distribution entirely nugatory in point of convenience. 



To complete the Catalogue of our birds and those of 

 the contiguous and vast possessions of Great Britain, I 

 have added an Appendix, drawn chiefly from the dis- 

 coveries recorded by Richardson and Swainson In the 

 second volume of their Northern Zoology ; and to which 

 is also added some information and additions from other 

 sources, as well as the remedy of some inadvertent 

 omissions. 



In now retiring from the public as an Ornithologist, I 

 take this opportunity of again tendering my thanks to 

 the various friends and acquaintances who have at differ- 



