Class II. KINGFISHER, 333 



and some other parts of Europe, and of a very 

 fine note ; it is true that it is conversant among 

 reeds, like the bird described by Aristotle, but 

 as its colors are very plain, and that striking 

 character of the fine blue back is wanting, we 

 cannot assent to the opinion of Belon, and ra- 

 ther imagine it to be one of the lost birds of 

 the antients. 



Those who think we have said too much on 

 this subject, should consider how incumbent it 

 is on every lover of science, to attempt placing 

 the labors of the antients in a just light; to 

 clear their works from those errors, which owe 

 their origin to the darkness of the times ; and 

 to evince, that many of their accounts are 

 strictly true ; many founded on truth ; and 

 that others contain a mixture of fable and 

 reality, which certainly merit the trouble of se- 

 paration. It is much to be lamented that tra- 

 vellers, either on classic or any other ground, 

 have not been more assiduous in noting the 

 zoology of those countries, which the antients 

 have celebrated for their productions : for, from 

 those who have attended to that branch of na- 

 tural knowledge, we have been able to deve- 

 lope the meaning of the old naturalists, and 



av. ii. 218. Greater reed sparrow, Wil. orn. 143. Turdusarun- 

 dinaceus, Lin. syst. sp. 296. Reed Thrush. Lath. Syn. iii. 32. 



