PREFACE TO ORIGINAL EDITIO^f. 143 



cere thanks are due, for the care they have bestowed in preventing the 

 introduction of foreign expressions, or phrases not idiomatic, into my 

 composition. 



As the birds of Florida were principally wanting, and it is even sup- 

 posed that several of those belonging to Cuba, and other West India 

 Islands, may occasionally resort to the southern part of Florida, and 

 thus be entitled to a place in our work, a painter-naturalist was selected 

 to visit that part of the Union which Wilson had been so desirous 

 of exploring. A better choice could not have been made than that of 

 Mr. Titian Peale, whose zeal in the cause of natural history had pre- 

 viously induced him to join those useful citizens, who, under the com- 

 mand of that excellent officer, Major Long, explored the western wilds 

 as far as the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Peale's success in that expedition, 

 where he procured and drew on the spot almost all the new birds con- 

 tained in this volume, will warrant us in anticipating much from his 

 exertions in Florida. 



We expect that our American Ornithology will extend to three 

 volumes, so, that with the nine previously published by Wilson, the 

 whole subject will be embraced in twelve. The present volume contains 

 land birds only ; and in evidence of Wilson's industry we may state, 

 that we have been unable to adduce a new Pennsylvanian bird. For 

 the contents of this volume, w^e have been obliged to resort to birds 

 inhabiting the western territories, the greater part of which were first 

 made known by Say, in the Account of Long's Expedition to the 

 Rocky Mountains, a work that has justly acquired a high degree of 

 celebrity, and is no less creditable to the nation than to the individuals' 

 concerned in its production. 



The second volume will be devoted to water birds, some of which are 

 common in the very city of Philadelphia. The third will contain birds 

 of both sub-classes indiscriminately, and will chiefly consist of Mr. 

 Peale's gleanings in Florida. 



