PRELIMINARY NOTICES. 



warblers is given in page 72 et seq. of Ornithologia, says, 

 " I certainly have never heard a thrush sing when sitting, 

 perhaps for want of attending to it; but have frequently 

 heard and seen the male blackcap sing while sitting on the 

 eggs, and have found its nest by it more than once ; the 

 male of this species sits nearly as much as the female." 

 Thus confirming the statement that somebirds do occasionally 

 sing while sitting on the eggs; and thus demolishing the 

 theory of the Hon. Daines Barrington. 



It is, we must admit, somewhat temerarious to contro- 

 vert the statement of such respectable writers as Mr. Bar- 

 rington, to whom naturalists have so long deferred ; but if 

 we always take care to be supported by fact and not fancy ^ 

 we need not doubt the result ; in the mean time we may 

 expect to be assailed by those who, relying on such respecta- 

 ble authority, or their own confined vision, are unwilling to 

 admit more than they have dreamt of in their philosophy. 

 On this subject I must add one other remark : if that 

 respectable naturalist were now alive, and felt that interest 

 in the science which a genuine natural historian ought to 

 feel, he would rejoice in having any of his statements cor- 

 rected, explained, or even disproved, if untrue: the ever- 

 lasting fountains of truth and nature will continue to flow, 

 and cannot be turned aside to gratify the vanity or self-suf- 

 ficiency of any one, 



Hypercriticism, 

 He who writes and publishes a book has not unfre- 

 quently the misfortune of being pelted at by wags and other 

 mischievous persons, who are ever on the alert to observe 

 something wherewith to excite laughter in themselves and 

 others, totally regardless of the feelings of the author, or of 

 the truth and knowledge contained in his book. More espe- 

 cially will this be the case should the author be so unfor- 



