10 INTRODUCTION. 



malicious Celt, capable of subsisting a month on dulse and 

 tangles, with an occasional raw limpet or mussel, might hold 

 out until, rather than be starved, the philosophers should leave 

 the birds to him to do with them as he pleased. In sober 

 earnest, it is impossible to remedy the acknowledged defects 

 in nomenclature, so as to render it universally acceptable. 

 Some persons who do their best to render the subject still more 

 intricate, are extremely sensitive on the point of uniformity ; 

 but, in my opinion, however much they w^ho are ambitious of 

 being legislators in this matter may desire conformity to their 

 views, there will always be more to spurn the yoke than to 

 yield to authority, which is gradually falling to its proper 

 standard. In fact, no two ornithologists have ever used the 

 same names for five hundred birds ; nor could two be found 

 who should employ the same nomenclature in describing even 

 the birds of Britain. There is really no cause of regret in all 

 this : were there no differences in politics, religion, and science, 

 the world would probably be much worse than it is. I am 

 therefore under the necessity of using my ov/n discretion in 

 bestowing English, Gaelic, and Latin names on the birds which 

 I propose to describe ; and I request that my readers scruple 

 not to reject whatever they find indicative of bad taste or bad 

 feeling. 



Of the numerous systems, or modes of arranging birds, that 

 have been proposed by authors, two of the most celebrated 

 may be here given in outline, that the student may be enabled 

 to judge whether it be probable that any method so constructed 

 can be in harmony with nature. 



The System of Linnseus, which for a considerable number of 

 years was extensively adopted, is founded chiefly upon the form 

 of the bill and feet. The six orders of which it is composed 

 are named and characterized as follows : — 



I. AcciPiTREs. Bill more or less curved ; upper mandible 

 dilated on either side behind the point, or armed with a tooth ; 

 nostrils open. Feet formed for clutching, short, robust ; toes 

 tuberculate beneath the joints ; claws arcuate, very acute. 

 Head and neck muscular ; skin toucfh ; flesh unfit for being 



