ON 
THE NOTES OF BIRDS. 
—so~— 
Ir is much to be regretted that the study of ornitho- 
logy is too frequently confined solely to the perusal 
of the best authors on the subject, and to the examin- 
ation and arrangement of preserved specimens, whose 
faded plumage and distorted forms convey very im- 
perfect ideas of the elegance and symmetry which so 
eminently distinguish this beautiful and highly inter- 
esting part of the creation. To those whom business 
or inclination leads to reside chiefly in large towns, 
such are almost the only means of information which 
offer themselves ; but who that enjoys the opportunity 
of observing the free denizens of the fields and woods 
in their native haunts would exchange their lively and 
unrestrained activity, their curious domestic economy, 
their mysterious migrations, and their wild but de- 
lightful melody, for the fixed glassy eye and the mute 
tongue of the imanimate forms which are crowded 
together in melancholy groups in the museum? Let 
me not, however, be misunderstood. I do not mean 
to insinuate that those collections of birds which enrich 
