PLAN OF THE BOOK. 



SECT. III. PREFATORY NOTICE OF THE FOLLOWING 

 CHAPTERS. 



This work is not, strictly speaking, a specimen of 

 that simple analytical method of treating a scientific 

 subject, which, as I have mentioned, best adapts it 

 for the purposes of popular instruction ; because the 

 nature of the larger work in which it in substance 

 appears, prevented its being made expressly a school- 

 book. Besides, the subject of birds, though one of 

 the most inviting that can engage the attention of 

 persons at any age, and one which has peculiar 

 claims for the young, demands, when treated scienti- 

 fically, however lightly, more preparatory knowledge 

 than those at school can be supposed to possess, at 

 least till an advanced period of their studies. No 

 doubt the subject can, in great part, be understood 

 with very little preparatory knowledge; and in order 

 that it may be as extensively useful as possible, I have 

 endeavoured, in every instance, to take the simplest 

 views of all those matters which come within the 

 scope of the volume, and to express them in the 

 plainest language. But still the beauty of the subject 

 cannot be fully appreciated, or reverence for those 



