2 THE HISTORY OF ORNITHOLOGY 



have appeared from time to time, during the past few centu- 

 ries, would make a volume almost in itself. Our intention is, 

 in the main, merely to indicate the proper lines of study which 

 one might pursue with advantage to become familiar with its 

 history. It is more to assist the student than to furnish him 

 with complete information. 



The progress which Ornithology has made, from its earliest 

 inception nntil the present time, is very similar to that made 

 by any of the kindred sciences. Each has begun with the 

 lowest ideas of the real relations existing between men and 

 things ; and each has advanced, as rapidly as the spirit of the 

 times would admit, to its present standpoint. All along the 

 line, however, have appeared special departures, as one might 

 call them, where the old thought was left for, or incorporated 

 in, a new and generally more complete one. These depart- 

 ures have been, for the most part, so radical, and so noted for 

 their truthfulness tonature, that the men who conceived them 

 were and still are mentioned as masters in their departments. 

 We note the progress of any great event more by the brilliant 

 light which genius casts upon it, as if by special revelation 

 from the unknown to the kuown, than by the petty wrang- 

 lings of jealous rivals. Truth always clears itself in the 

 end. No part of it was ever lost to the world through want 

 of the means to spread itself abroad. When the mind of 

 man is prepared for its reception, it will appear in all its 

 beauty and fullness, and harmony of law, — until then we 

 have but faint and disconnected glimpses of it only. A mas- 

 ter mind will collate the disjointed thought and embody it in 

 a grand harmonious expression of some vital, living Truth. 



Let us look briefly at this Progress of Ornithology as his- 

 tory furnishes it to us : And here, as in other sciences, we can 

 justly begin with the old Greek philosopher Aristotle, who 

 was the first to give us any very definite conceptions of Birds, 

 — but, though he separated the species and recorded their 

 habits with considerable fidelity, his ideas were crude when 

 viewed from the standpoint of our present understanding of 



