INTRODUCTION. 



Of all the classes of animals by which we are surrounded in 

 the ample field of Nature, there are none more remarkable in 

 their appearance and habits than the feathered inhabitants of 

 the air. They play around us like fairy spirits, elude approach 

 in an element which defies our pursuit, soar out of sight in the 

 yielding sky, journey over our heads in marshalled ranks, dart 

 like meteors in the sunshine of summer, or, seeking the solitary 

 recesses of the forest and the waters, they glide before us like 

 beings of fancy. They diversify the still landscape with the 

 most lively motion and beautiful association ; they come and 

 go with the change of the season ; and as their actions are di- 

 rected by an uncontrollable instinct of provident Nature, they 

 may be considered as concomitant with the beauty of the sur- 

 rounding scene. With what grateful sensations do we involun- 

 tarily hail the arrival of these faithful messengers of spring and 

 summer, after the lapse of the dreary winter, which compelled 

 them to forsake us for more favored climes. Their songs, now 

 heard from the leafy groves and shadowy forests, inspire de- 

 light, or recollections of the pleasing past, in every breast. 

 How volatile, how playfully capricious, how musical and happy, 

 are these roving sylphs of Nature, to whom the air, the earth, 

 and the waters are alike habitable ! Their lives are spent in 

 boundless action ; and Nature, with an omniscient benevo- 

 lence, has assisted and formed them for this wonderful display 

 of perpetual life and vigor, in an element almost their own. 



