106 On the Ornithology of Wits. 
and so to compare smaller things with great, before we proceed to 
investigate the several properties, peculiarities, and habits of indi- 
vidual birds, it will be necessary first to understand thoroughly the 
relative positions they occupy: and in order to do this we must 
devote a little attention, which will be amply repaid by the result. 
In Ornithology, as in other sciences, we must not attempt to run, 
before we can walk: we must not rush headlong “in medias res:” 
step by step we must be contented to advance: but our way will 
not be weary, if we give attention to surmount the little obstacles 
which at first sight seem to oppose us: our journey will not be 
irksome, if we pause to smooth away the little inequalities of the 
path; and the more we advance, the easier becomes the way, the 
smoother the road, till at length we find ourselves unincumbered 
by hinderances, and surrounded by all the sweets and pleasures of 
this most fascinating study. 
Now one of the very first requirements in every branch of 
Natural History, is method; one of the most indispensible is order: 
without this it will be impossible to progress, and Ornithology, like 
a skein of silk, which if handled with due order is easily unwound, 
deprived of method, soon becomes a tangled mass of knots, which 
defy the skill of the extricator to unravel them. The very first 
lesson then that we must learn, and one which we must never 
forget, if we would know anything of Ornithology, is a little insight 
into the classification of birds, whereby what before seemed hope- 
less confusion, becomes by the touch of this magic wand, the very 
perfection of order. There seems at first sight to be a wide differ- 
ence between the gigantic ostrich and the diminutive creeper, 
between the glorious eagle and the insignificant sparrow, between 
the noble bustard and the tiny wren; but by methodical arrange- 
ment, we see how, link succeeding link, and species being connected 
by the strongest affinity with species, these are all integral parts of 
the same great chain; united by many intermediate bands, but 
still component parts of the same great whole: nay, not only so, 
but by the help of classification, we can not only assign to each 
bird, quadruped, insect, fish, or reptile their own appropriate 
