HINTS TO ORNITHOLOGISTS. 317 



diet of the wigeon is grass. Still, neither the wigeon, 

 nor the barn-door fowl, have bristles at the beak. 



The claws of rapacious birds are pronounced to 

 be " retractile." If they are so, then the knowledge 

 of internal anatomy would force us to pronounce 

 the claws of other tribes of birds, such as the 

 robins, the doves, the barn-door fowls, and a thou- 

 sand others, to be retractile. 



The soldier must spend many a day amid the 

 roar of hostile cannon, before he becomes qualified 

 to command an army ; the carpenter ought to 

 work for years in the dock-yard, ere he attempts to 

 build a line-of-battle ship ; and the schoolmaster 

 has to pore over many a scientific volume, in order 

 to prepare himself to teach the mathematics. 



But, somehow or other, it happens, nowadays, 

 that practical knowledge does not seem to be con- 

 sidered essentially necessary for those who under- 

 take to write on certain parts of Natural History. 

 Thus, some there are who will offer their history 

 of birds to the public, although it can be ascer- 

 tained that they have never been in the country 

 which those birds inhabit. Others again, not 

 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- 



