4 INTRODUCTION. 



sheep and goat afford information respecting the numerous 

 class of ruminating animals, which inhabit parched deserts, 

 or the precipitous regions of rocks and mountains. But in 

 the class of Birds the case is different: many, it is true, and 

 perhaps some of the most singular as well as most beautiful, 

 are seldom accessible; but of those which meet us at every 

 turn, which cheer our solitary walk with their song, or display 

 before us their various instincts and prominent occupations, 

 the number is immense. Of about one hundred and twenty 

 genera, about half are to be met with in this country, and 

 frequently under circumstances favourable for ascertaining 

 their habits and modes of life. Every field and garden, 

 every tree and hedge-row, may prove the prolific source of 

 delightful interest and information; for a trifling attention 

 will enable an observer to distinguish, when on the wing, 

 high in mid-air, or flitting from spray to spray, the genus to 

 which every species belongs. In short, not a day passes but 

 a lover of nature may record in his journal, anecdotes and 

 hints from whence a store of practical knowledge may be 

 derived. In the country, an acquaintance with the feathered 

 creation is like the acquisition of another sense, limited by 

 neither season nor situation ; their periodical journeys to 

 and from regions far remote, their mysterious and wonderful 

 instincts adapted to their respective situations, are all sources 

 of inexhaustible interest. The spring, the summer, the 

 autumn, and the winter, have each their corresponding 

 interests. There is, moreover, a remarkable uniformity 

 amongst Birds, which does not exist in -Quadrupeds ; for 

 instance, a lion and an armadillo, a giraffe or a mole, are as 

 different as living creatures can be conceived to be ; but in 

 Birds, excepting in size, and the natural division between the 

 land and water families, a greater similarity is discoverable; 

 a circumstance which enables us to treat more briefly the 

 particular history of their several subdivisions. 



