ill PEEFACE. 



hints, and sometimes short disquisitions of more exten- 

 sive range than the mere history of birds ; and of these, 

 several will be found to be new : but they have been 

 studiously introduced in the least ostentatious manner 

 possible, that they might not alarm the ordinary reader 

 with the parade of science, which is always more formi- 

 dable than the reality. 



As, in works of instruction generally, and especially 

 in popular works, one main object ought to be to please, 

 and if possible, to delight the reader, controversy, and 

 especially anything bordering upon acerbity, is sadly 

 out of place. Therefore, though I have not, in one or 

 two solitary instances, been able wholly to conceal what 

 I felt, I have endeavoured to express the feeling in the 

 shortest and gentlest terms possible. One cannot help 

 a little turning away of the countenance from cupidity, 

 arrogance, or even gratuitous error ; but still, one's 

 bowels yearn over that "frailty of the flesh/' through 

 which such things occur. These matters, though in 

 themselves neither profitable nor pleasant, yet afford a 

 strong and striking proof of the advantages of the study 

 of nature, inasmuch as all mankind agree, as far as they 

 understand the facts, and dispute only about their own 

 supplemental or substitutional assumptions. 



The illustrations will speak for themselves, and may 

 be depended on for fidelity of expression and accuracy 

 of tint. I could have wished that they had been more 

 numerous, extending to all the species ; but that would 

 have vastly increased the cost of the book, and also 

 thrown the author into the shade. More figures, in an 

 inferior style, might possibly have tempted into larceny 

 those whose natural instinct needs no spurring ; aud 



