Song Birds and Water Fowl 
who have no time nor taste for the profoundly 
scientific. This grouping is primarily intended 
for water fowl, as being the class for which, in 
the general ignorance of the public concerning 
them, an easy and evident system is desirable, 
rather than for the more familiar land birds. 
And the most rigid scientist can find little 
ground for positive objection to this scheme, 
since the groups thus formed are almost identi- 
cal with those established on anatomical prin- 
ciples, while the succession of groups largely 
follows the order of sequence in scientific 
works. 
My principle of arrangement is that of sfe- 
cial habitat, which is a peculiarly reasonable 
one to adopt, in view of the greatly divergent 
natures of water fowl. ‘To give symmetry to 
the scheme, and thoroughly to illustrate what 
may be called the circle of habitat—a super- 
ficial, yet natural, way of looking at the bird- 
kingdom—I have also briefly grouped the land 
birds in the same manner. In reply to the 
possible objection that the divisions thus made 
are not absolutely distinct, but that the species 
bordering each group show to some extent the 
characteristic features of adjacent groups—to 
this it is only needful to say that precisely the 
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