PREFACE. Vll 



It is very unfortunate for the promotion of Natural History, that 

 so many and various Systems in Ornithology have of late years been 

 attempted, and of course each builder of a new one flatters himself 

 tliat he has done service to science, by bringing the productions of 

 nature under some restrictions; but the infinite variety and multitude 

 of which it consists, will not be so fettered ; and how far the 

 elaborately multiplying of Genera will truly answer the end of the 

 Naturalist, we have yet to learn. In respect to ourselves, having in 

 the Synopsis formed a plan, which has been in general understood, 

 and not disapproved of, it behoves us to continue the same arrange- 

 ment, as near as may be, in the present publication. We cannot 

 object to those who come after us acting according to their own 

 ideas, but hope, that though at present they differ widely one 

 from the other, each preferring his own method, they may unite in 

 sentiment, and together form one system, on such a basis as to be 

 a standard for future generations. 



In a work like the present, the reader may expect to find a full 

 account of the nature of the feathered creation ; but this has been 

 already so sufficiently done to our hands by others, as to render it 

 unnecessary to enlarge on it in this place. On this head we have to 

 recommend the perusal of the elaborate and elegant works of the 

 Count de Buffon. Tliis matter has also been most amply taken up 

 by M. Daudin, in his Traite d'Ornitliologie, and Avill fiilly merit the 

 reader's attention. 



The late Mr. Pennant, likewise, has so scientifically treated the 

 subject in his Genera of Birds, as to render any further observation 

 on this point unnecessary : and I ought not to omit, that the Intro- 



