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 to say 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. 



