LETTER TO WILLIAM SWAINSON", ESQ. 



observations, made with the greatest care in Nature's lovely 

 garden. 



After years of attention to the economy of birds, I have suc- 

 ceeded in getting the barn owl, the brown owl, the heron, the jack- 

 daw, the magpie, the carrion crow, the mallard, the pheasant, the 

 starling, the woodpecker, the ox-eye titmouse, the waterhen, the 

 thrush, and the blackbird, to build their nests, and take away their 

 young in safety, at a stone-throw of each other. 



I have pointed out the duck and the drake clothed in the same 

 plumage only for a very short time in summer. I have noted down 

 the morning and evening flight of the rook in this district, which 

 evolution may be seen every day for six months in the year ; and I 

 have cleared up the mystery of the loss of feathers which this useful 

 bird experiences at the base of its bill. I have shown which birds 

 cover their eggs, and which birds never cover their eggs at all, on 

 leaving the nest. I have shown that one hawk never molests the 

 feathered tribes ; and that another (scarcely to be distinguished from 

 this when on the wing) destroys them indiscriminately. I have shown . 

 that the wigeon feeds by day, eating grass like a goose ; whilst its con- 

 gener, the mallard, invariably refuses this food, and seeks for its sus- 

 tenance by night. I have given to the public an entirely new method 

 of preserving the eggs of birds for cabinets ; and I have pointed out 

 a process for preparing insects, so that they will never corrupt, or be 

 exposed to the depredations of the moth, or be affected by damp. 



I have written on the landing, the career, and the depredations of 

 the Hanoverian rat in this country. I formerly delivered in Leeds 

 a very long lecture, to show the necessity of reform in Museums 

 both at home and abroad ; proving, at the same time, how speci- 

 mens might be prepared on scientific principles. I have shown 

 how a man ought to fight the feline, and how the canine, tribe of 

 animals. All this, and much more, has been conveyed in language so 

 plain and simple, that a schoolboy in rudiments can understand it 



Now let us peep into the " Natural History and Classification of 

 Birds " by the Market-Naturalist. 



You have given us a series of circles, which would puzzle Sir 

 Isaac Newton himself; and which will tend to scare nine-tenths of 

 the votaries of ornithology clear out of the field. 



