ORNITHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION 139 



fourth converting science into romance, and giving no 

 key to the discrimination of the species, bringing his 

 little knowledge of the phenomena under the dominion 

 of imagination, and copiously intermingling his patch- 

 work of truth and error with scraps of poetry. The 

 plan of this work is very different from that of any of 

 these, and is not by any means calculated to amuse the 

 reader who desires nothing more than pleasant anec- 

 dotes or fanciful combinations, or him who merely 

 wishes to know a species by name. It contains the 

 only full and detailed technical descriptions hitherto 

 given in this country. The habits of the species are 

 treated of with equal extension in every case where I 

 have been enabled to study them advantageously. The 

 internal structure has been explained in so far as I have 

 thought it expedient to endeavour to bring it into view, 

 and in particular the alimentary organs, as determining 

 and illustrating the habits, have been carefully attended 

 to. If imagination has sometimes been permitted to 

 interfere, it has only been in disposing ascertained facts 

 so as to present an agreeable picture, or to render them 

 easily intelligible by placing them in relation to each 

 other. British Birds, vol. v., Preface. 



