138 INIEMORTAL TRIBUTE 



the persons who view birds merely as composed of skin 

 and feathers ; but to them I now cease from addressing 

 myself They will gradually disappear from the earth, 

 and their place will be occupied by men who will study 

 birds as organic beings. The attempt which I have 

 made to establish a rational method of study in this 

 most interesting department of science, however feeble 

 it may be, will yet form, I am well persuaded, the com- 

 mencement of a new era among my countrymen, whom 

 I hope yet to see perfecting my favourite study to such 

 a degree as to render these volumes antiquated and 

 effete. For my own part, I am well pleased to think 

 that my labours, however little appreciated by such of 

 my contemporaries as evidently conceive themselves to 

 be the sole depositaries of ornithological knowedge, will 

 be productive of beneficial results, inasmuch as they will 

 stimulate to increased exertion some of those young and 

 ardent naturalists who, to my certain knowledge, have 

 derived pleasure from even the rude attempt at observa- 

 tion of so humble an individual as myself. — British 

 Birds, vol. iii. p. 159. 



Each of our many ornithologists, real and pretended, 

 has a method of his own : one confining himself to short 

 technical descriptions as most useful to students ; 

 another detailing more especially the habits of the 

 birds as more amusing to general readers ; a third view- 

 ing them in relation to human feelings and passion ; a 



