Part II. 



GENERAL ORNITHOLOGY 



AN OUTLINE OF THE 



STUUCTURE AND CLA.SfSIFICATION OF BIEDS. 



§ l._ DEFINITION OF BIRDS. 



GENERAL ORNITHOLOGY, like Field Omitholugy, is a subject with which the 

 student must have souie acquaiutance, if he would hope to derive either pleasure or 

 profit from the Birds of North America. For any intelligent understanding of this subject, he 

 must become reasonably familiar ^rith the teclmical terms used in deseriliiug and classifying 

 birds, and learn at least enough of the structure of these creatures to appreciate the characters 

 upon M'hich all description and classification is based. Extensive and varied and accurate as 

 may be his random perception of objects of natural history, his knowledge is not scientific, but 

 only empirical, until reflection comes to aiil obser\"atiun, and conceptions of the significance of 

 what he knows are formed by logical processes in the mind. Foi- 



Science (Lat. scire, to know) is knowledge set in order ; knowledge disposed after the 

 rational method that best shows, or tends tcj show best, the true relations of observed facts. 

 Sound scientific facts are the natural basis of all philosophic truth, and the safest stepping- 

 stones to religious faith, — to that wisdom which comes (inly of knowing the relation which 

 material entities bear to spiritual realities. The orderly knowledge of any particular class (jf 

 facts — the methodical disposition of observations uficm any particular set of objects — constitutes 

 a Special Science. Thus 



Ornithology (Gr. opviSos, ornitlios, of a bird ; Xdyos, lofjos, a disc(jurse) is the Science of 

 Birds. Ornithology consists in the rational arrangement and exposition of all that is known of 

 birds, and the logical inference of much that is not known. Ornithohjgy treats of the physical 

 structure, physiological processes, and mental attributes of birds ; of their habits and maimers ; 

 of their geographical distribution and geological succession; of their ])rol)able ancestry; of 

 their every relation to one another and to all other animals, including ujaii, — in short, of their 

 significance in Nature and Supernature. The first business of Ornithology is to define its 

 ground — to answer the question, 



