Song Birds and Water Fowl 



who have no time nor taste for the profoundly 

 scientific. This grouping is primarily intended 

 for water fowl, as being the class for which, in 

 the general ignorance of the public concerning 

 them, an easy and evident system is desirable, 

 rather than for the more familiar land birds. 

 And the most rigid scientist can find little 

 ground for positive objection to this scheme, 

 since the groups thus formed are almost identi- 

 cal with those established on anatomical prin- 

 ciples, while the succession of groups largely 

 follows the order of sequence in scientific 

 works. 



My principle of arrangement is that of spe- 

 cial habitat, which is a peculiarly reasonable 

 one to adopt, in view of the greatly divergent 

 natures of water fowl. To give symmetry to 

 the scheme, and thoroughly to illustrate what 

 may be called the circle of habitat — a super- 

 ficial, yet natural, way of looking at the bird- 

 kingdom — I have also briefly grouped the land 

 birds in the same manner. In reply to the 

 possible objection that the divisions thus made 

 are not absolutely distinct, but that the species 

 bordering each group show to some extent the 

 characteristic features of adjacent groups — to 

 this it is only needful to say that precisely the 

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