INTRODUCTION. O 



scenes of natural beauty, and to some extent with those of 

 travel and adventure (for many of our British birds breed 

 in far distant lands) ; and should the subject be pursued in 

 connection with the study of the forms and general habits of 

 the birds themselves, it will open to the view a most pleasing 

 portion of the vast domain of nature, and a department, we 

 may hope, adapted to excite within the mind ambition to 

 explore the whole. 



Habits of careful and continued observation among the 

 walks of nature, we have already remarked, bring a rich 

 reward of pleasure, and, we may add, of improvement like- 

 wise. The pleasure arises, in part at least, from the gra- 

 tification of innate taste ; from the satisfaction afforded to 

 an inquiring mind by each valuable addition to its stores 

 of knowledge ; and from that association of ideas which 

 marshals, as it were, around a thought or object, its wide 

 relationships, and gives it an importance before but little 

 apprehended. 



This pleasure also is an ever-present joy, in fields and 

 woods, by streams, and lakes, and seas, and even in the 

 pathless wilderness : and he whose eye and ear are open to 

 instruction, and whose spirit is in unison with the Great 

 Author of his being, can truly say : 



