INTRODUCTION. 5 



song, or display before us their various instincts and 

 prominent occupations, the number is immense. Of 

 about one hundred and twenty genera, above half 

 are to be met with in this country, and frequently 

 under circumstances favourable for ascertaining their 

 habits and modes of life. Every field and garden, 

 every tree and hedge-ro\v, may prove the prolific 

 source of delightful interest and information; for a 

 trifling attention will enable an observer to distin- 

 guish, when on the wing, high in mid-air, or flitting 

 from spray to spray, the genus to which every 

 species belongs. In short, not a day passes but a 

 lover of nature may record in his journal, anecdotes 

 and hints from whence a store of practical know- 

 ledge may be derived. In the country, an acquaint- 

 ance with the feathered creation is like the acqui- 

 sition of another sense, limited by neither season 

 nor situation; their periodical journeys to and from 

 regions far remote, their mysterious and wonderful 

 instincts, adapted to their respective situations, are 

 all sources of inexhaustible interest. The spring, 

 the summer, the autumn, and the winter, have each 

 their corresponding interests. There is, moreover, 

 a remarkable uniformity amongst Birds, w r hich does 

 not exist in Quadrupeds; for instance, a lion and an 

 armadillo, a giraffe or a mole, are as different as 

 living creatures can be conceived to be; but in 

 Birds, excepting in size, and the natural division 

 between the land and water families, a greater 

 similarity is discoverable; a circumstance which 

 enables us to treat more briefly the particular his- 

 tory of their several subdivisions. 



