296 HINTS TO ORNITHOLOGISTS. 



having resided a sufficient length of time amongst 

 the foreign birds which they undertake to describe, 

 are perpetually giving statements at variance with 

 the real habits of the birds. Thus the account 

 which is given us of the habits of the Toucan is 

 wrong at all points ; to say nothing of its tongue, &c. 

 No man who has paid sufficient attention to the 

 woodpeckers whilst in quest of food, will allow him- 

 self to be led away with the idea that these birds 

 " break through and demolish the hardest wood." 



Give me the man who, after minute examination, 

 has written his account of birds in the country 

 where the birds themselves are found. Give me 

 the man, I don't care of what nation, who has pub- 

 lished his ornithological investigations without 

 having first placed them in the scientific hands of 

 those men, who would fain persuade him that no 

 work on ornithology can pass safely through the 

 fiery ordeal of modern criticism, unless it has pre- 

 viously received the polish of their own incom- 

 parable varnish. 



Thus, in days of yore, old Apollo advised his son 

 Phaethon to let his face be well smeared with ce- 

 lestial ointment, in order to make it fireproof, ere he- 

 mounted on the box of the solar chariot. 



" Turn pater ora sui, sacro medicamine, nati 

 Contigit, et rapidse fecit patientia flammse. " 



But, notwithstanding this precaution, the lad got 

 himself into a sad broil ; and we know not what 

 disasters his folly might have brought upon the 

 world, had not mother Earth bestirred herself, and 

 persuaded Jupiter to stop his wild career. At hefr 



