ILLUSTRATIONS. 21 



This case is too apposite for requiring any formal 

 application : That which we desire is a beginning and 

 a way for the ignorant, and we are presented with the 

 end, which lias been arrived at by those who are 

 learned on the subject, and by them only. This 

 seems so palpably absurd when stated, that if it 

 formed only the rare exception and not the very 

 general rule, it would not be tolerated for a day ; but 

 unfortunately it is not the only absurdity which 

 people cling to and cherish, from the mere fact of its 

 being handed down from antiquity, and the exposure 

 of which they are apt to regard as something which 

 will injure society in a manner they know not how, 

 instead of what it is in reality— a little bit more gained 

 from the dominion of Old Dulness. 



In natural history, and more especially in the 

 natural history of birds, which, from the fleetness of 

 their aerial motions, carry the mind more readily 

 and directly over the general map of the earth, than 

 any other class of the earth's productions, this inver- 

 sion of the order of nature — this substitution of the 

 end for the beginning, is peculiarly hurtful ; and it 

 must be the cause why people, even weU informed 

 otherwise, know so very little about the nature and 

 habits of those species which are before their eyes 

 every day, and which appear to come for the express 

 purpose of being observed and studied. Take, as a 

 familiar instance, the common redbreast, and ask 

 your next neighbour when and where it builds its 

 nest, what are the number and colour of its eggs, how 

 long the incubation lasts, how the young are fed, and 

 on what ; and the chances are many to one that you 

 do not get direct answers, and if you do, they are the 

 second-hand answers of some one who has written a 

 description of the bird, which, if original at all, has 



