82 NOTES AND 



community bore witness to his merits by a munificent subscription which, after 

 satisfying all expenses, would have placed him, if living, on the enviable ground 

 of independence.- 



The science of ornithology is involved in considerable difficulty and confusion. 

 The arrangement of animals according to the principles of the Linnaean system, 

 is an admirable contrivance to extricate the science of zoology from the darkness 

 which surrounded it. The classes and orders of the great naturalist are arbitra- 

 ry : the genera and species are natural ; but when we consider that the generic 

 characters of birds are taken from the bill, tongue, nostrils, cere, earuncles, 

 and other naked parts and that the characters of the species are derived prin- 

 cipally from the plumage and habitudes, we must be sensible that here is a wide 

 field for a difference of opinion. Besides, the^bmenclature adopted, in endeav- 

 ouring to compress the descriptions of animals within the shortest compass, 

 is frequently a mystery to most readers. Take, for instance, an account of a 

 bird by Linnaeus, Latham, or Pennant, and it will require considerable industry 

 to penetrate the exact meaning of the author. The generic characters frequent- 

 ly run so closely into each other, that it is no easy task to make the appropri- 

 ate arrangement. The plumage of birds varies according to seasons, to age, and 

 to climate ; and their manners assume a different appearance at different times, 

 and in different countries. The sexes exhibit, almost invariably, a diversity 

 The male is frequently smaller than the female, and is generally arrayed in a 

 more beautiful dress. Genera are confounded together j varieties are represent- 

 ed as distinct species ; the male is placed in a different species from his mate ; 

 and the same bird, at different ages and seasons, is considered a different species, 

 The names of birds vary in different places. 



In the same district of country the same bird frequently goes by different ap 

 pellations, and the scientific name is also not uniform j Linnaeus, Brisson, and Buf- 

 fon, oftentimes disagree. We may add to this, the absurd custom adopted in 

 this country of naming our birds after those in Europe, to which they are suppo- 

 sed to have some likeness, although, in most respects, they are dissimilar. 



There are three modes in which we may obtain a knowledge of birds. From 

 personal observation of these animals in their natural state ; from preserved 

 subjects in cabinets of natural history ; and from books. The first is undoubt- 

 edly preferable, so far as it goes ; but it is necessarily limited by our range ot" 

 travelling. The second sup; lies this defect, but it is liable to this great objec^ 

 tion ; the subjects are often not only imperfectly prepared in the first instance, but 

 generally decay and dissolve. lu Cayenne, which has furnished more subjects 

 for the cabinets of european naturalists, than any other country ; the birds are 

 steeped in spirits for a long time, and dried by the heat of an oven. This must 

 undoubtedly, in many instances, sully the glossy beauty of their plumage, and 



