X PREFACE. 



valuable of all possessions,, that it descends to the world 

 generally, and not to kindred or heirs that can be 

 named in the will of the bequeather. But still I am 

 not aware that, in the course of these volumes, I have 

 appropriated any man's words without acknowledg- 

 ment ; and even with it, I have not been lavish in quo- 

 tation either from others or from anything that I 

 myself may formerly have published which is as much 

 a fraud upon the public as the appropriation of that 

 which they have already in the works of another. 



Still I feel myself under numerous and weighty 

 obligations, some of which I am not at liberty to ac- 

 knowledge. But I cannot pass without notice those 

 which I owe to Mr. YARHELL, whose name is so well 

 known, and whose talents and labours are so justly 

 esteemed by all who possessed the love, and are con- 

 versant with the knowledge of nature. That most acute 

 and truly scientific zoologist is not, however, answer- 

 able for any one point, debatable or not debatable, 

 which appears in this work ; but yet I must say and I 

 say it with pride that his museum and stores of know- 

 ledge, his sound judgment and candid opinion, which 

 are far more valuable than any museum or collection, 

 have been freely open and liberally afforded to me, and 

 that they have sustained me in several instances where, 

 through the imperfection of my own experience, my 

 confidence might otherwise have broken down. 



So much for the general purpose of these volumes ; 

 and though the execution must speak for itself, a few 

 words of explanation may not be altogether unneces- 

 sary. A complete system is quite incompatible with an 

 account of the birds of a single country of small 



