INTRODUCTION. 3 



of the water just dances and dimples, to show its obedience 

 to the air. Before one's feet, it sports in turn all the tints 

 of the rainbow; but it softens off in the distance, and so 

 blends its beryl with the subdued sapphire of the horizon 

 sky, that the line of their separation is obliterated, and the 

 observer feels linked to the universe. 



On such days, the fishes sport so near the surface that 

 their multitudes are ever and anon whitening the water, and 

 impressing you with a feeling of the vast productiveness of 

 that wide and wonderful element. 



But i in the midst of your contemplation, the gannet 

 should come prone down, like a fragment hurled from the 

 summit, dashing into the water till the ripple closes over 

 him, and again bounding upwards with the reward of his 

 daring in his bill, then the cliff, the sky, the sea, and the 

 fishes, would all be forgotten, and your attention would be 

 wholly and irresistibly absorbed by the bird. Even the 

 dismal sand, where land and sea are equally void of inte- 

 rest, save the melancholy interest produced by the bleaching 

 fragments of ships, which remain to mark the spots where 

 they were stranded, and, it may be, their crews enshrouded 

 in the flood ; even there, the scream of a curlew, the whistle 

 of a sand-piper, or the wail of some sea-bird on the wing, will 

 bring you back to animated nature, and your imagination 

 will soon people the dreary waste with subjects of pleasure 

 and admiration. Go where you will, be the scene and season 

 what they may, be the sky serene or be it in storms, there is 

 always a bird to be found, and that bird never fails to be 

 interesting, as well to the unlearned as to the learned. Thus, 

 the study of birds is not only one of the best and most 

 certain sources of rational enjoyment, but it is one which 

 leads more directly than any other to the love, and conse- 

 quently to the study and the knowledge, of all nature, and of 

 nature's Author. 



B2 



