18 INTRODUCTION. 



nuously or at intervals, to the study of birds, needs be at no 

 loss for opportunities. In almost any part of the country, 

 about an hundred species may be procured without very 

 much difficulty, and the habits of many of them may be sa- 

 tisfactorily studied. Specimens of an hundred and fifty 

 more may be examined in our public museums, which, al- 

 ready numerous, are yearly increasing ; and of the remainder 

 one may form some idea from their representations in books. 

 Prepared skins may be obtained in the principal towns ; and 

 in preserving the objects which he may procure, the student 

 may obtain the assistance of some of the numerous indivi- 

 duals who devote themselves to the preparation of birds. 



Stuffed and mounted skins are not those most useful to 

 the ornithologist, they being too expensive, and requiring 

 too much accommodation. A collection of prepared skins, 

 partially stuffed, and arranged in the properly proportioned 

 drawers of a cabinet, or series of cabinets, will be found 

 much more useful, and much less expensive. But without 

 possessing such a collection, or having free access to one, al- 

 though the student may know birds by name, he will scarcely 

 acquire a critical knowledge of their characters, their dif- 

 ferences, and points of agreement. 



Many persons, even professed naturalists, seem to think, 

 that when one can distinguish a bird from every other, name 

 it, assign it its place in an artificial or natural arrangement, 

 and state some particulars of its habits and history, he knows 

 all that is requisite. Such persons, having merely a dry 

 technical sort of knowledge, have no idea of the pleasure to 

 be derived from an intimate study of the structure and func- 

 tions of birds. A month's study applied to half a dozen spe- 

 cies, may afford more knowledge and more delight than the 

 acquisition in the same period of merely the names and dis- 

 tinctive characters of fifty or more. 



But few people can devote very much of their time to the 

 study of birds, or of any other branch of natural history ; 

 and to those whose leisure is not great, even the names and 



