ii PREFACE. 



tion as it mufl have added to the bulk of the volumes. A per- 

 formance of this kind, therefore, to be of real utility, mufl: be in 

 a feparate publication; as, in that cafe, the defcriptions being 

 compreffed into a fmaller fpace, might be curforily perufed, in 

 the fame manner as in the Syjiema Naturie of Linricsus, after whofe 

 elegant model it fhould alfo be formed. 



This, however, cannot be in a very little compafs, as it mufl: 

 exceed the limits of .the ornithologic part of that author's work, 

 in-the fame proportion as the fpecies defcribed in this Synopjis do 

 •thofe in ih& Syft em a ; for at the time of iL/«KdfKj's writing, the 

 number of birds treated of by him did not greatly exceed 900, 

 for all of which (excepting between 30 and 40 which were new, 

 and defcribed by him as luch) he was able to refer to one or 

 more writers who had given a full account of them ; but in the 

 prefent undertaking more than 2000 others have likewife been de- 

 fcribed, the greater part of which has been noticed by various 

 writers fince the lafl: edition o^ Linnaeus' % work ; the reft, between 

 5 and 600 in number, only to be found in the feveral volur^es 

 of this work. - , 



That concife generic and fpecific defcriptions have been 



thought necelTary, need not, in this place, be further infifted on, 



when it is known that the author of thefe Iheets haftily penned 



4 fuchs 



