xliv INTRODUCTION. 



In a general way it may be considered as essential for the 

 bird to fly as it is for the fish to swim or the quadruped to 

 walk ; yet in all these tribes there are exceptions to the general 

 habits. Thus among quadrupeds the bats fly, the seals swim, 

 and the beaver and otter swim better than theyjcan walk. So 

 also among birds, the Ostrich, Cassowary, and some others, 

 incapable of flying, are obliged to walk ; others, as the Dippers, 

 fly and swim but never walk. Some, like the Swallows and 

 Humming Birds, pass their time chiefly on the wing. A far 

 greater number of birds live on the water than of quadrupeds, 

 for of the latter there are not more than five or six kinds fur- 

 nished with webbed or oar-like feet, whereas of birds with this 

 structure there are several hundred. The lightness of their 

 feathers and bones, as well as the boat-like form of their bodies, 

 contributes greatly to facilitate their buoyancy and progress in 

 the water, and their feet serve as oars to propel them. 



Thus in whatever way we view the feathered tribes which 

 surround us, we shall find much both to amuse and instruct. 

 We hearken to their songs with renewed delight, as the harbin- 

 gers and associates of the season they accompany. Their 

 return, after a long absence, is hailed with gratitude to the 

 Author of all existence ; and the cheerless solitude of inani- 

 mate Nature is, by their presence, attuned to life and harmony. 

 Nor do they alone administer to the amusement and luxury of 

 life ; faithful aids as well as messengers of the seasons, they 

 associate round our tenements, and defend the various produc- 

 tions of the earth, on which we so much rely for subsistence, 

 from the destructive depredations of myriads of insects, which, 

 but for timely riddance by unnumbered birds, would be fol- 

 lowed by a general failure and famine. Public economy and 

 utility, then, no less than humanity, plead for the protection of 

 the feathered race ; and the wanton destruction of birds, so 

 useful, beautiful, and amusing, if not treated as such by law, 

 ought to be considered as a crime by every moral, feeling, and 

 reflecting mind. 



