20 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 



spect, that at the present day no account, however im- 

 perfect, exists of the various organs of the species of 

 any order of birds. The alimentary canal itself, the 

 examination of which seems to me to form the very 

 basis of all real knowledge of animals, has been so much 

 neglected, that, if you consult all the works on compa- 

 rative anatomy that have appeared in this country, and 

 all the so-called descriptions of birds, from those of 

 twelve words to those of as many paragraphs or pages, 

 you will not be able to collect enough to afford you any 

 idea of its various modifications even in the species of 

 the single Linnsean genus Falco. Anatomists are gene- 

 rally unacquainted with species, and they describe or 

 place on a shelf in their cabinet, " a Hawk," or " an 

 Eagle ;" but whether that hawk be a falcon, a kite, a 

 sparrow-hawk, or a hen-harrier, they do not inform us, 

 doubtless because they conceive such information to be , 

 useless. The mere dry-skin naturalists, on the other 

 had, present copious accounts of the colours of the plu- 

 mage, the form of the bill and feet, and such like cir- 

 cumstances connected with the external appearance of 

 birds ; but not a word can they say respecting their or- 

 ganization. Even the field naturalists, who shoot and 

 handle actual birds, and not merely skins stuflfed with 

 straw or some other substance, seldom extend their in- 

 quiries beyond the length of the guts, the capacity of 

 the gullet, or the knobs on the windpipe. Alas for the 

 " higher order of naturalists," the philosophical system- 



