28 THE OENITHOLOGICAL GUIDE. 



been previously observed and recorded : he com- 

 bines the scientific with the natural history of an 

 animal. He examines its structure in every minute 

 particular, and is thus enabled to trace the particular 

 adaptation of this structure for performing all those 

 functions which the field naturalist has witnessed 

 during life ; an intellectual gratification, by the way, 

 which the latter, if he disregards such minutiae, 

 cannot enjoy. He observes all those external pecu- 

 liarities of shape, of color, or of markings, which 

 distinguish the object before him as a species; he 

 refers to his collections, compares it with others, and 

 thus ascertains its true characters. But all this is 

 but preliminary to other investigations ; his business 

 is not only with species but with groups, which are 

 congregations of species; he has to condense par- 

 ticulars into generals ; in other words, to search after 

 and obtain general results from a multiplicity of 

 isolated facts. He detects natural groups, and 

 distinguishes them by characters applicable to the 

 individuals which respectively compose them ; he 

 next compares these assemblages with others, and 

 studies their several degrees of relationship. Pro- 

 ceeding in this manner, and ascending higher and 

 higher in his generalizations, he concentrates the 

 facts, spread into an octavo volume of zoological 

 anecdotes and ' field' remarks, within the compass of 

 a few pages. And while he thus makes use of the 

 diffuse and disconnected observations of the field 

 naturalist, he gives to them a stamp of importance, 



