in it, as it treats almost exclusively of Nature's works and the manner by which man has utilized 

 some of them. There are, I fear, numbers of persons who consider such matters much too common- 

 place, and entirely beneath their notice; from such I expect no sympathy. Admiration ;. for, and the 

 love of, Nature's productions causes us to observe them, and pay them some of the attention they 

 were all evidently intended to excite in us. There is really no substance, one may so express it, 

 naturally created, but what is worthy of being studied ; and amongst such substances some new 

 idea is constantly, and will be for ever, casting up. 



How much soever the drawings fail to represent what was intended, I venture to hope 

 they will be received with every allowance for their inaccuracies and my want of ability to 

 make them more like what each of you may expect to find them. They are very rough, and 

 can only give some idea of the habits of the different birds, and this is all that is intended. 

 The very best illustrations generally only imperfectly represent a particular species, as many 

 individuals of these often vary so greatly in appearance with the seasons, and in the 

 sexes ; and if we take the extreme view of the matter, no two things in nature ever are or 

 were exactly alike. 



Should you ever have considered the subject, you will have probably thought of the impossi- 

 bility to make true copies of animals in motion, in consequence of the very short space of time 

 they are in the exact position you may wish to represent them in ; and I therefore warn you not to 

 expect too much from these very imperfect representations of birds, each of which is merely 

 a vague idea of what the birds would be like, culled from the imagination of what has been 

 seen, and what one may say has been impressed on the brain, and from it transferred so as to 



