INTRODUCTION. vii 



casting glances of friendship around, kindly licks the hands of 

 the children who are caressing him. Anxiety of another 

 nature now prevails among the members of the happy group ; 

 the contents of the traveller's wallet are sought for, and ar- 

 ranged in view of the whole family. One looks at this and 

 likes it, another has caught hold of a different object, the oldest 

 perhaps reads the "journal," while some prefer gazing on the 

 sketches "from nature." Meanwhile the traveller and his 

 dearest friend feel perfectly happy in being once more together 

 — never again to part. 



Now, Reader, you may^well imagine how happy I am at this 

 moment, when, like the traveller alluded to, I find my journeys 

 all finished, my anxieties vanished, my mission accomplished ; 

 and when I expect soon to see myself and my dearest friends 

 seated beneath lofty and fragrant trees, listening to the gay 

 carollings of the Mocking Bird, or the sweet though perhaps 

 melancholy song of my favourite the Wood Thrush. Fishing- 

 tackle, bird-nets, and a good gun, will then be often exchanged 

 for the pencil and the pen ; and, although I can never entirely 

 rehnquish the pleasure of noting new facts in zoology, or of 

 portraying natural objects, whether on canvass or on paper, I 

 shall undertake few journeys, save short rambles for amuse- 

 ment. If I have a regret at this moment, it is that I cannot 

 transfer to you the whole of the practical knowledge which I 

 have acquired during so many years of enthusiastic devotion 

 to the study of nature. 



You will perceive that the number of species of birds which 

 have been discovered, figured, and described, since the publi- 

 cation of the American Ornithology, by Alexander Wilson, 

 is very great. Indeed, the list is now extended to double the 



