PRELIMINARY NOTICES. 



of any facts concerning it through this Magazine will be 

 greatly esteemed .* 



On the Terms used in Natural History. 



The Reviewer mistakes in supposing that I might be led 

 away by any authority whatever, independently of facts. 

 1 incline to think that scientific naturalists, those, I mean, 

 who think more of terms than of facts, will be rather dis- 

 posed to find fault with me for an opposite line of conduct : 

 for placing terms in the back and facts in the foreground ; 

 for setting too little value upon systems of any kinds. But, 

 while I frankly admit, that I think our system-builders have 

 pushed, in many instances, their generalization too far, 

 it behoved me, nevertheless, as a faithful natural historian, 

 to lay before the reader, Ornithology, in science and in 

 fact as it is, rather than what I could wish it to be. As to 

 the introduction of the terms cuculid scansor, and a few 

 others, every one will, I hope, perceive that this has been 

 done to show how the scientific terms may be anglicised 



* I have just been informed by a gentleman of my acquaint- 

 ance that some years since he knew of a cuckoo having been 

 kept in a cage, after being hatched in this country, till the 

 beginning of February in the next year: it was kept, of course, 

 in a warm room, and fed on raw flesh ; but, by omitting one 

 frosty night to keep the room warm, it died. 



The following is the notice alluded to above : 



A person named Moore, residing at Goring near Worthing, 

 has in his possession a cuckoo which was taken from the nest 

 last year; and has been kept in a healthy state in a cage since 

 that period. During ihe present season " it has poured forth its 

 well-known call, and is a rare and perhaps a solitary instance 

 of a cuckoo surviving in this country after the usual period at 

 «hich these birds migrate, which is seldom later than August. 

 Sussex Advertiser; Morning Herald, June 12, 1828. 



