INTRODUCTION. XV11 



the accuracy required for the purposes of science. With the view of 

 obviating this defect in some degree, and of rendering the work more 

 popular, I began by introducing occasional extracts from the lively 

 and accurate pen of Wilson. I soon found, however, that a continu- 

 ance of this practice would have swelled the work to an undue size, 

 and have left no room for Mr. Swainson's important and interesting 

 observations on natural arrangement. It was, therefore, laid aside ; 

 and, at the suggestion of Mr. Swainson, the succeeding descriptions 

 were much and advantageously compressed*. 



The discovery of the laws which regulate the distribution of the 

 species over the face of the globe, being one of the most important ends 

 of the publication of local Fauna, the scanty contributions of facts that 

 we have been enabled to make are thrown, for the greater facility of 

 reference, into a tabular form. The New World is peculiarly adapted 

 for researches of this kind ; its two extremities, and almost every 

 intermediate zone, are accessible, and, it is to be hoped, will hereafter 

 be minutely investigated for the purposes of natural science. When 

 accurate lists of the resident birds in each region, and of the summer 

 and winter visiters, are obtained, many highly interesting and unex- 

 pected deductions will doubtless be made, and much theoretical 

 reasoning exploded. The Prince of Musignano has performed a 

 great service to science in furnishing such a list for the neighbour, 

 hood of Philadelphia f, of which we have availed ourselves in the 

 construction of the following table. Had it been in our power to 

 have drawn up an equally complete list for the Fur-countries, the 

 general movements of the feathered tribes through North America 

 would have been rendered apparent. 



Birds are usually divided into migratory and resident, though com- 

 paratively few in the Fur-countries are strictly entitled to the latter 

 appellation. The Raven and Canadian and Short-billed Jays are, 

 indeed, the only species which we recognized as being equally nume- 



s The announcement at this period of two editions of Wilson's inimitable work, by different 

 editors, at a price which will place them within the reach of every ornithologist, was a further induce- 

 ment to us to abstain from borrowing from it. 



t Specchio Comparativo delle Ornitologie di Roma e di Filadelfia, di C. L. Bonaparte, Principe 

 di Musignano. Pisa. 1827. 



