ORNITHOLOGY 



ORNITHOLOGY 1 in its proper sense is the methodi- 

 cal study and consequent knowledge of Birds with all 

 that relates to them; but the difficulty of assigning a limit 

 to the commencement of such study and knowledge gives 

 the word a very vague meaning, and practically procures 

 its application to much that does not enter the domain of 

 Science. This elastic application renders it impossible in 

 the following sketch of the history of Ornithology to draw 

 any sharp distinction between works that are emphatically 

 ornithological and those to which that title can only be 

 attached by courtesy; for, since Birds have always attracted 

 far greater attention than any other group of animals with 

 which in number or in importance they can be compared, 

 there has grown up concerning them a literature of corre- 

 sponding magnitude and of the widest range, extending 

 from the recondite and laborious investigations of the 

 morphologist and anatomist to the casual observations of 

 the sportsman or the schoolboy. The chief cause of the 

 disproportionate amount of attention which Birds have 

 received plainly arises from the way in which so many of 

 them familiarly present themselves to us, or even (it may 

 be said) force themselves upon our notice. Trusting to 

 the freedom from danger conferred by the power of flight, 

 most Birds have no need to lurk hidden in dens, or to 

 slink from place to place under shelter of the inequalities 

 of the ground or of the vegetation which clothes it, as is 

 the case with so many other animals of similar size. 

 Besides this, a great number of the Birds which thus 

 display themselves freely to our gaze are conspicuous for 

 the beauty of their plumage ; and there are very few that 

 are not remarkable for the grace of their form. Some 

 Birds again enchant us with their voice, and others 

 administer to our luxuries and wants, while there is scarcely 

 a species which has not idiosyncrasies that are found to be 

 of engaging interest the more we know of them. Moreover, 

 it is clear that the art of the fowler is one that must have 

 been practised from the very earliest times, and to follow 

 that art with success no inconsiderable amount of acquaint- 

 ance with the haunts and habits of Birds is a necessity. 

 Owing to one or another of these causes, or to the combina- 

 tion of more than one, it is not surprising that the obser- 

 vation of Birds has been from a very remote period a 

 favourite pursuit among nearly all nations, and this obser- 

 vation lias by degrees led to a study more or less framed 

 on methodical principles, finally reaching the dignity of a 



1 Ofnitholiir/ia, from the Greek bpvift-, crude form of opns, a bird, 

 and -Koyta, allied to \6yos, cor.-.monly Englished a discourse. The. 

 earliest known use of the word Ornithology seems to lie in the third 

 edition of Blount's Glossographia (1670), where it is noted as being 

 " trie title of a late Book." See Prof. Skeat's Etymological Dictionary 

 of the English Language. 



science, and a study that has its votaries in almost all 

 classes of the population of every civilized country. In 

 the ages during which intelligence dawned on the world's 

 total ignorance, and even now in those districts that have 

 not yet emerged from the twilight of a knowledge still 

 more imperfect than is our own at present, 2 an additional 

 and perhaps a stronger reason for paying attention to the 

 ways of Birds existed, or exists, in their association -with 

 the cherished beliefs handed down from generation to 

 generation among many races of men, and not unfrequently 

 interwoven in their mythology. 3 



Moreover, though Birds make a not unimportant appear- 

 ance in the earliest written records of the human race, the 

 painter's brush has preserved their counterfeit presentment 

 for a still long«r period. What is asserted — and that, so 

 far as the writer is aware, without contradiction — by 

 Egyptologists of the highest repute to be the oldest picture 

 in the world is a fragmentary fresco taken from a tomb at 

 Maydoom, and happily deposited, though in a decaying 

 condition, in the Museum at Boolak. This picture is said 

 to date from the time of the third or fourth dynasty, some 

 three thousand years before the Christian era. In it are 

 depicted with a marvellous fidelity, and thorough apprecia- 

 tion of form and colouring (despite a certain conventional 

 treatment), the figures of six Geese. Four of these figures 

 can be unhesitatingly referred to two species (Anser 

 albifnms and A. ruficollis) well known at the present day ; 

 and if the two remaining figures, belonging to a third 

 species, were re-examined by an expert they would very 

 possibly be capable of determination with no less certainty. 4 

 In later ages the representations of Birds of one sort or 

 another in Egyptian paintings and sculptures become 

 countless, and the bassi-rilievi of Assyrian monuments, 

 though mostly belonging of course to a subsequent period, 

 are not without them. No figures of Birds, however, seem 

 yet to have been found on the incised stones, bones, or 

 ivories of the prehistoric races of Europe. 



It is of course necessary to name Aristotle (born B.C. Aristotle. 

 385, died B.C. 322) as the first serious author on Ornithology 

 with whose writings we are acquainted, but even he had, 



2 Of the imperfection of our present knowledge more must he said 

 presently. 



3 For instances of this among Greeks and Romans almost any 

 dictionary or treatise of "Classical Antiquities" maybe consulted, 

 while as regards the superstitions of barbarous nations the authorities 

 are far too numerous to lie here named. 



4 Tlie portion of the picture containing the figures of the Geese has 

 been figured by Mr Loftie (Ride in Egypt, p. 209), and the present 

 writer owes to that gentleman's kindness tlie opportunity of examining 

 a copy made on the spot by an accomplished artist, as well as the 

 information that it is No. 9S8 of Marietta's Catalogue. See ait. Mural 

 Decoration, vol. xvii. p. 39, fig. 7. 



