on the habits of birds, lack the poetic beauty of AVilson. 

 Audubon has been most severely handled by the eccentric 

 Charles Waterton of England, where in his account of the 

 Humming Birds he says, they are able to fly, in one week 

 after they are hatched. Also in the Avonderful description of 

 what he saw of a Pigeon-roost, on the banks of the Cxreen 

 River in Kentucky, such as the clustering together of these 

 birds on the branches of trees like bees, as large as hogsheads ; 

 the breaking of trees two feet through at their butts, Ijy the 

 weight of pigeons on the tops. In 1832, Thomas Nuttall 

 published his " Manual of the Ornithology of the United 

 States and Canada," in 2 vols., with many wood-cuts. The 

 first volume contains the land birds, with an introduction of 

 thirty pages, presenting the general subject of ornitholog3% 

 with great beauty and interest. The second volume gives 

 us the water birds, with an appendix, draAvn from discover- 

 ies made by Richardson and Swainson. In his preface, he 

 says, " it was my principal object to furnish a compendious 

 and scientific treatise on the birds of the United States, at 

 a price so reasonable as to permit it to find a place in the 

 hands of general readers. It is known to many persons how 

 well and truly he accomplished his purpose. We are sorry 

 to add in connection with this work, that for several years 

 it has been out of print, and has become very scarce. A 

 report on the Ornithology of Massachusetts by order of the 

 Legislature, was presented to that body in 1889. It proved 

 to be a poor diluted compilation from the labors of Wilson 

 and Audubon, and wholly devoid of any scientific descrip- 

 tions of our birds, and any one would be puzzled to learn 

 from any thing to be found in the book, the difference be- 

 tween a Cat-bird and Blue-jay. 



Dr. DeKay's Zoology of J^ew York was published in 1842. 

 It is an extensive work, with good scientific descriptions. 

 But I think the figures and coloring are jDOor, probably the}' 

 were drawn and colored from bad stuffed and faded muse- 

 um specimens. A valuable local history of the birds to be 

 seen on Long-Island, was published in 1844, by J. P. Giraud, 

 Jr. It is particularly full and satisfactory, in its descrip- 

 tions of the water birds visiting that district. In 1856 there 

 appeared the history of the birds of California; Texas, Ore- 

 gon, British and Russian America, not given by former 

 American authors, by John Cassin, in one large volume, 

 with colored plates. By this work we have fifty new species 



