12 INTRODUCTION. 
tory of the woods and fields, the grand aviary of 
nature.” Of the difficulties which an accurate stu- 
dent of birds in general has to encounter, and of the 
particular difficulties which exist in wild and unfre- 
quented districts, Wilson has presented so striking 
and correct a view, that we cannot deny our readers 
the pleasure of reading one of the most characteris- 
tic passages of this ardent naturalist. 
“On many of his subjects it has not been in his 
power tosay much. The recent discovery of some 
birds, and the solitary and secluded habits of others, 
have offered great obstacles to his endeavours in this 
respect. But a time is approaching when these ob- 
stacles will no longer exist. When the population 
of this immense western republic will have diffused 
itself over every acre of ground fit for the comforta- 
ble habitation of man; when farms, villages, towns, 
and glittering cities, thick as the stars of a winter’s 
evening, overspread the face of our beloved country, 
and every hill, valley, and stream has its favourite 
name, its native flocks, and rural inhabitants; then 
not a warbler shall flit through our thickets but its 
name, its notes, and habits will be familiar to all, 
repeated in their sayings, and celebrated in their 
village songs. At that happy period, should any 
vestige or memory of the present publication exist, 
be it known to our more enlightened posterity, as 
some apology for the deficiencies of its author, that 
in the period in which he wrote, three fourths of our 
feathered tribes were altogether unknown even to 
the proprietors of the woods which they frequented ; 
that, without patron, fortune, or recompense, he 
brought the greater part of these from the obscurity 
of ages, gave to each ‘a local habitation and a 
name,’ collected from personal observation what- 
ever of their characters and manners seemed de- 
serving of attention; and delineated their forms and 
features, in their native colours, as faithfully as he 
could, as records, at least, of their existence.”’* 
* American Ornithology, vol. v., p. 8 
