Song Birds and Water Fowl 
eye view of the scene, by a classification which, 
though not based upon the minute criteria of 
science, is more serviceable to the field orni- 
thologist, who observes the life-habits, rather 
than the anatomical structure, of his specimens. 
No one method of classifying objects, be 
they animal, vegetable, or mineral, can be so 
comprehensive as to present all their features. 
The nature, especially of the higher classes of 
creation, is so many-sided, that no one system 
of grouping can possibly summarize all the 
interesting facts. Human beings can be grouped 
in many ways, each method emphasizing its 
peculiar aspect of the race. Some of the most 
fundamental traits of a man’s character are at 
once revealed by knowing his nationality ; but 
the daily current of his life is better understood 
by knowing his profession, as a physician, or a 
merchant, or an artist. The former view pre- 
sents his more hereditary nature, and the latter 
his equally individual but more accidental char- 
acter. The current classification of birds, be- 
ing based on heredity, as shown by anatomical 
structure, is like the former method of knowing 
a man’s nature; but, however profound, it 
omits many of the distinctive aspects of bird- 
life, and particularly some that are of most 
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