BIRDS IN GENERAL. 39 



Under one or other class, as I shall treat them, 

 the reader will probably find all the species, and 

 all the varieties that demand his curiosity. When 

 the leader of any tribe is described, and its his- 

 tory known, it will give a very tolerable idea of 

 all the species contained under it. It is true, the 

 reader will not thus have his knowledge ranged 

 under such precise distinctions ; nor can he be 

 able to say, with such fluency, that the rail is of 

 the ostrich class ; but, what is much more ma- 

 terial, he will have a tolerable history of the bird 

 he desires to know, or at least of that which most 

 resembles it in nature. 



However, it may be proper to apprize the 

 reader, that he will not here find his curiosity sa- 

 tisfied, as in the former volumes, where we often 

 took M. Buffon for our guide. Those who have 

 hitherto written the natural history of birds, have 

 in general been contented with telling their 

 names, or describing their toes or their plumage. 

 It must often therefore happen, that instead of 

 giving the history of a bird, we must be content 

 to entertain the reader with merely its descrip- 

 tion. I will therefore divide the following his- 

 tory of birds, with Linnagus, into six parts : in the 

 first of which I will give such as Brisson has 

 ranged among the rapacious birds ; next, those of 

 the pie kind ; and thus go on through the suc- 

 ceeding classes, till I finish with those of the duck 

 kind. But before I enter upon a systematic de- 

 tail, I will beg leave to give the history of three 

 or four birds that do not well range in any 

 system. These, from their great size, are suffi- 



