INTRODUCTION. 27 



ones. Some rock-pigeons now fly out, and you wonder how 

 birds so beautiful should consort with these dingy croakers. 

 As we proceed, leaving the breeding-colonies, some great 

 Black-backed Gulls, Herring-Gulls, and Terns, hover around 

 us, and on the distant point we perceive a troop of Oyster- 

 catchers. But the winds and the waves are rising, a strong 

 current sets in from the ocean, and we must bear away for 

 the landing-place. 



Should the ornithologist endeavour to make himself in 

 some measure acquainted with rocks and plants, he would be 

 so much the better qualified for his own particular profession. 

 There is nothing incompatible in these branches of Natural 

 History ; and, therefore, he needs not regard the sneers of 

 collectors in any particular department, who, having a mere 

 dry technical knowledge of their own favourite branch, at- 

 tempt on all occasions, for the purpose of commending them- 

 selves, to throw discredit on those who profess a little ac- 

 quaintance with it ; whereas they ought, in the exercise of 

 a liberal spirit and of Christian charity, to invite all to par- 

 take in the pleasures which they themselves experience. In 

 all professions there are illiberal and mean-spirited indivi- 

 duals, whose delight it is to thwart all who do not side with 

 them; and in ornithology I have met with such, but their 

 opposition has had no effect in impeding my progress. With 

 a sound body, a clear conscience, a good gun, and a note- 

 book, pencil, and knife, the student of ornithology may bid 

 defiance to all opponents and detractors, and with light steps 

 tread the heath or climb the mountain-slope. Friends en- 

 gaged in similar pursuits will sympathize with him, and kin- 

 dred minds, even if removed hundreds of miles from each 

 other, will indicate their mutual affinity by kind acts. In 

 this respect, however, the ornithologist does not differ from 

 the cultivator of any other branch of Natural History. , 



There may be countries more favourable for the acquisi- 

 tion of ornithological knowledge than this ; but still, the 

 Briton has a wide field in his native land. Many of the 



