Vlll PREFACE. 



If the keepers of cage birds should find fault with this essay, because I have not 

 allotted a particular chapter to the diseases and cure of each species, I would re- 

 fer them to a well-known little book of Songbirds, by Mr. Eleazar Albm, where 

 they will find enough said on this subject, most of which he transcribes from Ray's 

 edition of Willoughby's Ornithology, as Ray before him had done from other 

 writers on the subject, as far back as to the time of Aldrovandus and Gesner. 



Such of the Songbirds as abide with us all the year, feed on various kinds of seeds, 

 fruits, and insects. The goldfinch, chafiinch, linnets, ^c. delight in the seeds of the 

 various species of thistle, ragwort, groundsell, and other downy seeded plants. The 

 yellow-hammer, bunting, reed-sparrow, i3c. on grain, and the seeds of grass and 

 reed. Thrushes on berries, worms, small snails, and beetles, of all which a suficicnt 

 supply may easily be obtained during the warmer vionths; and if the keepers of cage 

 birds would be at a little pains to provide them with their naturalfood, it would tend 

 much to the health and value of those birds ; whereas they are often destroyed, or 

 spoiled, by feeding on old musty seeds, stale sour bread, and putrid water. The 

 summer warblers must be fed with animal food, of all which the various species 

 offiieSi brought to them alivCi are the most agreeable. 



But in one, as well as the other, your success chiefly depends on the freshness 

 and sweetness of their food and water, in not giving them too large a quantity at 

 one time, and too long neglecting them at another j in placing them in an airy, 

 well-lighted room ; in securing them from the severity of the winter's cold, and 

 screening them from the scorching heat of summer -, in keeping their apartments 

 free from cats, mice, or other vermin ; and in keeping their cages, cups, boxes, 

 and every thing about them, at all times, perfectly sweet and clean. 



At the heads of the descriptions I have given the Linncean names of the Birds, 

 . with references to the Systema Naturae of that Author ; and at the end cf the 

 other volume will be given an index, with references to the figures p/^ Authors. 



The second volume, which completes the work, will contain the same number of 

 plates as this, and will be published in due time. 



STANNARY, NEAR HALIFAX, - 

 April the ist, 1794.. 



Booh published by the Author, 

 i. An HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS, in Two Parts, Royal Quarto, with Figures of all the Species and 



Varieties, drawn, engraved, and coloured from Nature, by the Author, Price, in Boards, 2/. 2S, 

 II. An HISTORY OF FUNGUSSES growing about Halifax, with the Appendix, Four Volumes, Royal 

 Quarto, with 182 Plates, containing a great Numberof Figures, all drawn, engraved, and beautifully coloured, 

 by the Author, Price, in Boards, 8/. 8j. / 



Sold by the Author, at Stannary, near Halifax; by B. and J. White, in London; J.Todd, Y'ork; J. Binns, 



Leeds; and by all other Booksellers. 



