NOTE. 



It may be proper to observe, that most of the birds in this second volume make 

 their nests on the ground, in walls, or in the chinks or crevices of rocks ; conse- 

 quently, they could not be represented on shrubs or trees, with the same propriety 

 as in the former volume. 



The birds, also, which are the subjects of this volume, being fly-catchers, or 

 such as feed on insects, and not on fruits or seeds, exclude vegetable decorations 

 from the plates on which they are engraved. 



Flies, being food of the birds, may, undoubtedly, on that account, be introduced 

 with propriety ; besides, making an addition to the number .of the subjects figured 

 and consequently adding to the value of the book, they have their economical use, 

 in giving an apparent reason for representing the birds in such actions as best 

 display the beauty of their shape, and the arrangement of their feathers. They 

 also serve to occupy such spaces in the plates, as, if left without any kind of 

 object, p}ould give an appearance of poverty and emptiness to them. It is not 

 meant that in every instance the insect represented is the food of the bird which it 

 accompanies ; I do not suppose, for instance, that the Nightingale feeds on the 

 Tortoise-shell Butterfly ; or the Hedge-Sparrow on the large Tyger Mfith ; but 

 it may be from hence inferred, thai both these birds feed on flies. 



If it should be said, that the same attitude (I mean that of stretching after a 

 fly -or in the action of song) is too often repeated in the flgures, my answer is, 

 that there is no other attitude which they are capable of, in which they appear 

 either so beautiful or so animated. 



In the two families of birds which are the subjects of this volume, the Larks 

 and the Warblers, such a similarity obtains between the species in each, that to 

 write separate descriptions of the individuals is rather an irksome task. The 

 description of one in each family, might almost serp,efor the whole j the bills, 

 the feet, the size, the arrangement of the feathers, &c., are so near alike 

 throughout each family, that the idea of them, when conveyed by description only, 

 will be very near the sam^, however the words may be varied. 



