CHAPTER X. 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



AMONG the numerous departments of natural 

 history, none seems more interesting than Orni- 

 thology. True, it has oeen stigmatized as com- 

 municating pleasure only to puerile minds, or 

 womanish fancies, but certainly, contributing as 

 it does, to our pleasures, to our knowledge, to the 

 expansion of our better sentiments both moral 

 and religious it well deserves the attention and 

 the regard that is now so commonly bestowed 

 upon it. When men scoff at any such pursuits 

 as idle and frivolous, we may generally assign 

 their opposition to gross ignorance and overween- 

 ing vanity. Doubtless, persons have different 

 tastes and inclinations in the selection of their 

 studies, it is well, indeed, that such is the case 

 but nothing can be more illiberal or ungene- 

 rous, and certainly nothing more injurious to the 

 best interests of science, than to attempt to throw 

 contempt upon any one of her branches. All the 

 works of nature are replete with interest; and the 

 study of them is well calculated to raise the mind 



