LIFE OF WILSON. civ 



songs. At that happy period, should any vestige or memory of 

 the present publication exist, be it known to our more enlight- 

 ened posterity, as some apology for the deficiencies of its author, 

 that in the period in which he wrote, three-fourths of our feath- 

 ered 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 whatever of their char- 

 acters and manners seemed deserving of attention; and delineated 

 their forms and features, in their native colours, as faithfully as 

 he could, as records, at least, of their existence. 



" In treating of those birds more generally known, I have 

 endeavoured to do impartial justice to their respective charac- 

 ters. Ignorance and stubborn-rooted opinions, even in this coun- 

 try, have rendered some odious that are eminently useful; and 

 involved the manners of others in fable and mystery, which in 

 themselves are plain and open as day. To remove prejudices 

 when they oppose themselves to the influence of humanity is a 

 difficult, but when effected, a most pleasing employment. If 

 therefore, in devesting this part of the natural history of our 

 country of many of its fables and most forbidding features, and 

 thus enabling our youth to become more intimately acquainted 

 with this charming portion of the feathered creation, I should 

 have succeeded in multiplying their virtuous enjoyments, and 

 in rendering them more humane to those little choristers, how 

 gratifying to my heart would be the reflection ! For to me it ap- 

 pears, that of all inferior creatures Heaven seems to have inten- 

 ded birds as the most cheerful associates of man; to sooth and 

 exhilarate him in his labours by their varied melody, of which 

 no other creature, but man, is capable; to prevent the increase 

 of those supernumerary hosts of insects that would soon con- 

 sume the products of his industry; to glean up the refuse of his 

 fields, 'that nothing be lost,' and, what is of much more inter- 

 est, to be to him the most endearing examples of the tenderest 

 connubial love and parental affection." 





