HINTS TO ORNITHOLOGISTS. 497 



both at early dawn and at the fall of night. But when I hear the 

 partridge uttering its well-known call in the middle of the day, I 

 comprehend at once that it either sees bad company close at hand, 

 in the shape of cats or weasels, or that its brood has been surprised 

 and dispersed by some intruder j 'and that the individuals of the 

 covey are then calling to each other, from the place of their retreat, 

 in order that they may all meet again in some more secure and more 

 sheltered quarter. 



This knowledge of the habits of birds, which at once lets you into 

 their little secrets, is only to be obtained by a constant attention to 

 the notes and the habits of the feathered tribes in the open air. It 

 can never be learned in the solitude of the closet. Those naturalists 

 who pass nearly the whole of their time in their study, have it not in 

 their power to produce a work of real merit. On the contrary, it 

 too often happens that they do (most unintentionally, do doubt) a 

 great deal of harm to science. Travellers, and now and then a 

 foreigner, come to them, and desire that they will revise, or con- 

 coct, or prepare, a work for the press. They comply with the 

 request. But having little or no knowledge themselves ^of the real 

 habits of birds, they do not perceive the numberless faults in the 

 pages which they are requested to prepare for the public eye. 

 Hence it is that errors innumerable stare us in the face when we 

 open books which profess to treat on the nature and the habits of birds. 



What a world we live in ! say I, when I read that turkey-cocks 

 will break all the eggs of the females, for the purpose of protracting 

 their future frolics ; and that another species of bird flies away from 

 the nest when the egg is hatched, in order to procure food for the 

 young one. I tremble for the welfare of ornithology, when I am in- 

 formed that the ornithologist, now-a-days, is not expected to climb 

 lofty trees and precipices, in order to ascertain whether the birds 

 which frequent them are in the habit of fabricating their own nests, 

 or of using a natural cavity. We are gravely told it cannot be ex- 

 pected that field ornithologists should risk life and limb in order to 

 ascertain such points. This is melancholy doctrine ; and he who is 

 determined to follow it must be content to remain in ignorance. 



I cannot admit that the mere art of preserving the skin of a bird 

 is sufficient to answer every scientific purpose ; and I disagree with 



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