136 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE 



The varieties exhibited in the mode of flying, the 

 differences of manners, the dispersion and migration of 

 birds, were introduced to notice in chapters intervening 

 between the methodical descriptions of the orders under 

 which I thought it expedient to arrange the species. 

 In recalling these circumstances to mind, my object is 

 simply to connect the past with the present, and direct 

 the attention of the reader to the continuity of plan 

 and similarity of execution exhibited by the two 

 volumes ; not certainly to boast of my performances, 

 which I am convinced require not a little of that kind 

 of indulgence which the candid and considerate critic is 

 always ready to apply to the productions of an artist 

 who honestly and earnestly, although not always success- 

 fully, strives to represent Nature as she appears to him. 

 In the present work, as in others, and in all my 

 papers published in various journals, I have endeavoured 

 to adapt the style to the subject, rendering it compact 

 and precise when engaged with technical descriptions, 

 copious and florid when treating of the actions and 

 haunts of birds, abrupt or continuous, direct or discur- 

 sive, harsh or harmonious, according to the varying 

 circumstances of the case. My aim has been to amuse 

 as well as to instruct, to engage the affections as well as 

 to enlighten the understanding, to induce the traveller 

 on the road to science to make occasional excursions, 

 tending to raise his spirits, and to show to the public 

 that ornithology is not necessarily so repulsive as 

 some of its votaries represent it. British Birds, vol ii., 

 Preface. 



