THE OENITHOLOGICAL GUIDE. 153 



We are not acquainted with any author who so 

 felicitously unites beauty of style with strength and 

 nerve of expression — die does not specify, he paints, 

 and instead of giving us so many disjointed parts, 

 he places before us a perfect whole. The work is 

 obviously the product of long, patient, and continued 

 observation of nature, and the results of his obser- 

 vations he has so contrived to embody in words as to 

 impart a portion of his enthusiasm to his readers, 

 and induce them to follow the same line of observa- 

 tion. 



The author is not, like Bewick or Pennant, a 

 mere dry compiler, nor like Wilson or Audubon, a 

 mere fact hunter and recorder, but uniting in himself 

 the enthusiasm of the latter with the industry of the 

 former, aided by a natural genius superior to them 

 all, he has produced a transcript of nature, inferior 

 only to the original. Now we are dashed headlong 

 through the blue expanse in company with the dis- 

 dainful Eagle, next we are led a hopeless chase after 

 the nimble Dipper, and anon find ourselves deafened 

 by the chaotic uproar of the countless numbers of 

 alarmed and irritated sea birds. 



Nor do we find mere bare facts, which however 

 truthfully represented, and beautifully described, are 

 in themselves as valueless, as raw material before 

 worked, or bricks in the kiln. Our author has drawn 

 philosophic inductions, and traced well-known occur- 

 rences to their source, and followed them in all their 

 ramifications, without which, (however interesting) 



