INTRODUCTION. 3 



formly hereditary in each species, and so completely adequate 

 to their peculiar wants and convenience, as to overwhelm us 

 with astonishment at the power, wisdom and beneficence of the 

 Creator! 



In proportion as we become acquainted with these particu- 

 lars, our visits to, and residence in the country, become more 

 and more agreeable. Formerly, on such occasions, we found 

 ourselves in solitude, or with respect to the feathered tribes, as 

 it were in a strange country, where the manners, language and 

 faces of all were either totally overlooked, or utterly unknown 

 to us: now, we find ourselves among interesting and well- 

 known neighbours and acquaintance; and, in the notes of eve- 

 ry songster, recognize with satisfaction the voice of an old 

 friend and companion. A study thus tending to multiply our 

 enjoyments at so cheap a rate, and to lead us, by such pleasing 

 gradations, to the contemplation and worship of the Great 

 First Cause, the Father and Preserver of all, can neither be 

 idle nor useless, but is worthy of rational beings, and doubtless 

 agreeable to the Deity. 



In order to attain a more perfect knowledge of birds, natu- 

 ralists have divided them into orders, genera, species, and 

 varieties; but in doing this, scarcely two have agreed on 

 the same mode of arrangement, and this has indeed proved a 

 source of great perplexity to the student. Some have increas- 

 ed the number of orders to an unnecessary extent, multiplied 

 the genera, and, out of mere varieties, produced what they 

 supposed to be entire new species. Others, sensible of the im- 

 propriety of this, and wishing to simplify the science, as much 

 as possible, have reduced the orders and genera to a few, and 

 have thus thrown birds, whose food, habits and other charac- 

 teristical features are widely different, into one and the same 

 tribe, and thereby confounded our perception of that beautiful 

 gradation of affinity and resemblance, which Nature herself 

 seems to have been studious of preserving throughout the whole. 

 One principal cause of the great diversity of classifications, ap- 

 pears to be owing to the neglect, or want of opportunity, in 



