PREFACE. 



IN presenting to the public the second of this 

 series of volumes on Natural History, which 

 treats of the many-voiced and many-coloured 

 tribes that wing their way through the air, it 

 is only necessary to observe, that the Author has 

 pursued the same plan as that which he adopted 

 in treating of the Mammalia. The systematic 

 divisions of modern science are adhered to ; and 

 their distinctive characters succinctly, but cor- 

 rectly, and clearly given; while every Family is 

 illustrated by the description, history, and pic- 

 torial delineation of one of its constituent species. 



These illustrations have again been selected 

 in preference from the Zoology of the British 

 Islands ; a course which has been practicable to 

 a much greater extent in the present than in the 

 former volume ; for while of the forty-four Fami- 

 lies into which the Mammalia are divided, only 



