160 GRALL.E. 



stragglers, would carry us back to periods at which the his- 

 tory even of our own species is fabulous and vague; and 

 therefore we can hardly hope for any thing like certainty in 

 the history of animals, or in that of the physical state of the 

 country, during the fabulous and traditionary period of the 

 history of man. It is true, that as nature records the changes 

 of country in those remains which are accumulated by floods, 

 or otherwise buried in the earth, she never falsifies the 

 record to serve any particular purpose, as is sometimes done 

 by human analysis; but the difficulty of reading those 

 records of nature is generally much more than equal to that 

 of misrepresentation in the other case, that wherever we find 

 the history of man obscure, the history of nature always 

 involves equal, if not greater obscurity. Thus the progressive 

 history of those birds which resort seasonably to districts 

 which are in peculiar states, is a subject requiring the 

 greatest discrimination and nicety ; and though it be one 

 which, properly worked out, would throw much light upon 

 other subjects it is also one which cannot be worked other- 

 wise than by throwing the light of many other subjects 

 upon it. Its importance is great, however, and we have 

 thrown out these hints, not to inform the ignorant or to 

 guide the inquirer, but for the humbler, though perhaps 

 more important and useful object, of drawing attention to 

 the subject. 



Our notices of the birds which have led to these remarks 

 will be brief, as ampler details can be found in the general 

 systems of ornithology, and as those readers for whom these 

 pages are principally intended, have but small chance of 

 meeting with the birds in question. Of these stragglers, some 

 more resemble the common heron, others more the bittern, 

 and for others again there is no exact type among our native 

 birds, whether resident or regularly migrant, so that it will 

 be as well to notice the several genera in succession. 



