PREFACE. Vll 



I have examined with the utmost attention more 

 than four thousand individuals of this class in 

 the Museum. For more than five years they 

 have been arranged according to my ideas in 

 the public gallery, and all that I have said re- 

 lating to them has been drawn from my studies 

 there. Thus any relation between my descrip- 

 tions and some recent ones from other hands, is 

 purely accidental. 



" I trust that naturalists will approve of the 

 numerous sub-genera, which I have thought 

 proper to institute in the birds of prey, passeres 

 and water-fowl. They appeared requisite for 

 the purpose of introducing clearness into the 

 arrangement of these birds, hitherto so com- 

 plicated. I have also marked as far as possible, 

 the correspondence of these sub-divisions, with 

 the genera of MM. de Lacepede, Meyer, Wolf, 

 Temminke, and Savigny, and referred to each 

 of them all the species of which I possessed 

 authentic information. This labour, fatiguing 

 to myself, will prove useful and agreeable to 

 future investigators of the subject. I have 

 derived considerable pleasure in precisely de- 

 fining those several species, from many elegant 

 works on ornithology lately published, more 

 especially from those of M. Le Vaillant, and 

 M. de Vieillot. 



