GENERAL ORNITHOLOGY 



§ 1.— DEFINITION OF BIRDS 



General Ornithology, like Field Ornitholog3% is a subject with 

 Avhich the student must have some acquaintance, if he would hojie 

 to derive either pleasure or profit from the Birds of Great Britain. 

 For any intelligent understanding of this subject, he must become 

 reasonably familiar with the technical terms used in descri])ing and 

 classifj'ing birds, and learn at least enough of the structure of these 

 creatures to appreciate the characters upon which all description 

 and classification is based. Extensive and varied and accurate as 

 may be his random perception of objects of natural history, his 

 knowledge is not scientific, but only empirical, until reflection comes 

 to aid observation, and conceptions of the significance of what he 

 knows are formed by logical processes in the mind. For 



Science (Lat. scire, to know) is knowledge set in order ; know- 

 ledge disclosed after the rational method that best shows, or 

 tends to show best, the true relations of observed facts. Sound 

 scientific facts are the natural basis of all philosophic truth, and 

 the safest stepping-stones to religious faith, — to that wisdom 

 which comes only of knowing the relation Avhich material 

 entities bear to spiritual realities. The orderly knowledge of 

 any particular class of facts — the methodical disposition of observa- 

 tions upon any particular set of objects — constitutes a Special 

 Science. Thus 



Ornithology (Gr. opvLOos, orniiJios, of a bird ; Aoyos, logos, a 

 discourse) is the Science of Birds. Ornithology consists in the 

 rational arrangement and exposition of all that is known of birds, 

 and the logical inference of much that is not known. Ornithology 

 treats of the physical structure, physiological processes, and mental 

 attributes of birds ; of their habits and manners ; of their geo- 



