i rl 
296 HINTS TO ORNITHOLOGISTS. 
having resided a sufficient length of time amongst 
the foreign birds which they undertake to describe, 
are perpetually giving statements at variance with 
the real habits of the birds. Thus the account 
which is given us of the habits of the Toucan is 
wrong at all points; to say nothing of its tongue, &c. 
No man who has paid sufficient attention to the 
woodpeckers whilst in quest of food, will allow him- 
self to be led away with the idea that these birds 
‘break through and demolish the hardest wood.” 
Give me the man who, after minute examination, 
has written his account of birds in the country 
where the birds themselves are found. Give me 
the man, I don’t care of what nation, who has pub- 
lished his ornithological investigations without 
having first placed them in the scientific hands of 
those men, who would fain persuade him that no 
work on ornithology can pass safely through the 
fiery ordeal of modern criticism, unless it has pre- 
viously received the polish of their own incom- 
parable varnish. 
Thus, in days of yore, old Apollo advised his son 
Phaethon to let his face be well smeared with ce- 
lestial ointment, in order to make it fireproof, ere he 
mounted on the box of the solar chariot. 
«« Tum pater ora sui, sacro medicamine, nati 
Contigit, et rapide fecit patientia flammz.” 
But, notwithstanding this precaution, the lad got 
himself into a sad broil; and we know not what 
disasters his folly might have brought upon the 
world, had not mother Earth bestirred herself, and 
persuaded Jupiter to stop his wild career. At her 
LOLOL OER INE, 
