INTRODUCTOEY OBSERVATIONS. 



Thirty years ago, when I had ah-eady made some pro- 

 gress in examining the strncture, and observing the habits, of 

 the various Sea-Birds that frequented the wild tract of country 

 in which I then resided, I perceived that a natural arrange- 

 ment of the species would prove little in accordance with that 

 of the great reformer, whose Systema Natural was the only 

 book I possessed that treated of my favourite Ornithology. 

 I therefore sketched a system for myself, and when I could 

 not find a scientific name for a species, gave it one by which 

 I might, vmtil better informed, know it. This practice may 

 account in part for a propensity, evinced in the earlier vohmies 

 of this work, occasionally to prefer what I esteemed appro- 

 priate names to those, often very inapt, imposed by authors. 

 Some would-be legislators, enacting statutes having reference 

 to nomenclature, have, perhaps properly enough, denounced 

 all attempts to improve it by preferring a good name to a bad ; 

 but, in their zeal for maintaining their own fancied pre-emi- 

 nence, have very foolishly recommended that no regard be 

 paid to the writings of any one who, whatever discoveries in 

 structure or function he may disclose, however excellent his 

 descriptions of form and habits may be, has had the presump- 

 tion to set aside a name not to his taste, and use another. 

 These persons had never observed such a rule themselves, and 

 some of them seem to have forgotten their own precept. 

 They appear to consider the naming of objects the essential 

 part of Natural History. But, going beyond mere nomen- 

 clature, I found that every species that came under my 



