xxiv INTRODUCTION. 



tinents, I embraced every opportunity of forming a complete 

 collection of the various birds portrayed in my work. Until 

 this journey I had attached no value to a skin after the life 

 which gave it lustre had departed : indeed, the sight of one 

 gave me more pain than pleasure. Portions of my collections 

 of skins I sent to my friends in Europe at different times, and 

 in this manner I parted with those of some newly discovered 

 species before I had named them, so careless have 1 hitherto 

 been respecting " priority." While forming my collection, I 

 have often been pleased to find that many species, which, twenty- 

 five years ago, were scarce and rarely to be met with, are now 

 comparatively abundant ; — a circumstance which I attribute to 

 the increase of cultivated land in the United States. I need 

 scarcely add, that the specimens here alluded to have been mi- 

 nutely examined, for the purpose of rendering the specific des- 

 criptions as accurate as possible. And here I gladly embrace the 

 opportunity offered of presenting my best thanks to Professor 

 Jameson, for the kindness and liberality with which he has al- 

 lowed me the free use of the splendid collection of birds in the 

 museum of the University of Edinburgh. Of this privilege I 

 have availed myself in comparing specimens in my own collec- 

 tion with others obtained both in the United States and in other 

 parts of the world. 



Ever anxious to please you, and lay before you the best ef- 

 forts of my pencil, I carefully examined all my unpublished 

 drawings before I departed from England, and since then I 

 have made fresh representations of more than a hundred objects, 

 which had been painted twenty years or more previously. On 

 my latter rambles I have not only procured species not known 

 before, but have also succeeded in obtaining some of those of 



