MEASUREMENTS. 



33 



to give as many as any excuse can be found for, and will soon 

 result in every bird having a separate genus ; and in addition 

 some writers now give a bird the same generic and specific 

 name, thus making as much confusion as possible in nomen- 

 clature. 



The unfortunate part of ornithology, as at present practised, is 

 that it is chiefly confined to the slaughter of birds, whose skins, 

 when compared and examined by table naturalists, are upon the 

 slightest variation in plumage made into new species, without 

 any knowledge of their habits, notes, &c. Much more can be 

 done by observation than by the gun, and when a bird is 

 destroyed all chance of noticing its habits is destroyed likewise. 

 Measurements of length given are only an attempt to show the 

 proportionate size of a species. Measurements, in the writer's 

 opinion, are of little use, especially as hardly any two persons 

 measure a bird in the same manner. 



LAJA DEL CISCAB. 



