ii PREFACE. 



must deem superfluous. Yet the plan which I have followed 

 is calculated in some measure to please all parties, for he who 

 dislikes minute observations relative to form and structure, may 

 confine his attention to the descriptions of habits and manners. 

 To those really desirous of information respecting our native 

 species, I would say, Let us betake ourselves to the fields and 

 woods ; let us traverse the hills and valleys together ; let us there 

 study our favourites, pursue them from brake to bush, procure 

 as many as we need, and returning to our homes, inspect their 

 exterior, look closely to their bills, feathers and feet, and not 

 resting content with this, open them up, examine their internal 

 organs, and record as much of our observations as we may judge 

 useful to ourselves and others. A full description of any spe- 

 cies would occupy considerable space ; and were the anatomy 

 of an eagle, a raven, a heron, or a gull, detailed with as much 

 fidelity as that of our own species has been, it would form a 

 work equal in size to one containing an entire system of orni- 

 thology, graduated and circled out according to the most 

 approved principles, and with due regard to affinities and ana- 

 logies, types and aberrations. But books of this kind could 

 not, in the present state of zoology, obtain general approbation, 

 and, moreover, could be introduced to the public only by men 

 possessing the gifts of providence in a more than usual degree. 

 I have therefore judged it meet to steer a middle course be- 

 tween the tediously expanded, and the frivolously contracted, 

 feeling, assured that my observations, if accurate, will in due 

 time attract attention, and promote the progress of science. 



In this volume are contained descriptions of the Gallinaceous 

 Birds, the Pigeons, the Huskers or Conirostral Granivorous 

 Birds, and the Crows and Starlings, of which the ordinal, family, 

 and generic characters are given at length. The specific forms 

 are minutely described, reference being made in each case to 

 the general appearance, the bill, the feet, the wings, the tail, 

 the plumage, the organs of sense, the intestinal canal, the sexual 

 distinctions, the variations, the modes of walking and flying, 

 the ordinary habits, the nestling, the food, and the various uses 

 and relations of the bird treated of. The changes that take 

 place in the plumage, the distribution of the species, their mi- 



