OUR OWN BIRDS. 
CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTION. 
BESCRIPTION OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF BIRDS—CLASSI- 
FICATION: RAPTORES, INSESSORES, SCANSORES, RASORES, 
GRALLATORES, NATATORES—ON THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS — 
THEIR PLUMAGE, INSTINCT, MIGRATION, NESTS, EGGS, GH- 
NERIC DIVISIONS. 
Ir may be said that there is no part of the Animal 
Kingdom in which a more general interest is felt 
than in Birds. The great variety of their forms, the 
beauty, and often the gaudiness of their plumage, 
their graceful motions, their peculiar habits and man- 
ners, and, above all, their sweet musical voices, all 
conspire to assign them a most prominent position in 
Nature’s parterre. 
The birds of our own country, although less bril- 
liantly attired than some others, must yet hold in our 
affections the foremost place. What happy associa- 
tions do we connect with them! ‘Who that listens to 
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