PEEFACE TO FIEST EDITION 



This is mainly a book about the Birds, or more 

 properly an invitation to the study of Ornithology, 

 and the purpose of the author will be carried out in 

 proportion as it awakens and stimulates the interest 

 of the reader in this branch of Natural History. 



Though written less in the spirit of exact science 

 than with the freedom of love and old acquaintance, 

 yet I have in no instance taken liberties with facts, 

 or allowed my imagination to influence me to the 

 extent of giving a false impression or a wrong color- 

 ing. I have reaped my harvest more in the woods 

 than in the study ; what I offer, in fact, is a careful 

 and conscientious record of actual observations and 

 experiences, and is true as it stands written, every 

 word of it. But what has interested me most in 

 Ornithology is the pursuit, the chase, the discovery ; 

 that part of it which is akin to hunting, fishing, and 

 wild sports, and which I could carry with me in my 

 eye and ear wherever I went. 



I cannot answer with much confidence the poet's 

 inquiry, 



" Hast thou named all the birds without a gun ? " 



