142 PREFACE TO ORIGINAL EDITION. 



has followed the appearance of his writings, wherever the' English lan- 

 guage is understood, or natural history admired. 



A love for the same department of natural science, and a desire to 

 complete the vast enterprise so far advanced by Wilson's labors, has 

 induced us to undertake the present work, in order to illustrate what 

 premature death prevented him from accomplishing, as well as the dis- 

 coveries subsequently made in the feathered tribes of these States. This 

 undertaking was not precipitately decided on, nor until the author had 

 well ascertained that no one else was willing to engage in the work. 

 He was aware of his inability to portray the history and habits of birda 

 in a style equal to that of his distinguished predecessor, principally be- 

 cause he does not write in his own language ; and were his abilities equal 

 to his wishes, the species recorded in the following pages are, for the 

 most part, so rare, and their history so little known, as to preclude the 

 possibility of making the attempt. 



To compensate for such disadvantages, the author has throughout 

 endeavored to give accurate descriptions, correct synonymes, and a 

 nomenclature as conformable to nature as possible. He has been 

 equally solicitous to procure the best representations of his birds ; in 

 which he hopes he has succeeded, through the happy pencil of Mr. Titian 

 Peale, who has invariably drawn from the recent bird, and not from the 

 preserved specimen ; this being the principal advantage of works on 

 Natural History, published in the country where the animals figured are 

 found. The want' of such opportunities of making drawings, causes the 

 chief defect of various magnificent European works, in which beauty 

 and brilliancy of coloring scarcely compensate for the unnatural stiff- 

 ness, faithfully copied from stuffed skins. With the birds always before 

 him, Mr. Lawson has transferred our drawings to the copper with his 

 usual unrivalled accuracy and ability. This artist, who acquired so 

 much distinction by the engravings in Wilson's work, has become per- 

 fectly master of his art, and so intimately acquainted with the various 

 parts of a bird, that he may be justly styled the first ornithological en- 

 graver of our age. That important part of the work, the coloring of 

 the plates, has not been intrusted to inexperienced persons, but has 

 throughout been executed from nature by Mr. A. Rider himself, whose 

 talents as an artist are well kown. 



To my friends Mr. Thomas Say, and Dr. John D. Godman, my sin- 



