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ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



mediate access to all his specimens for the purpose of 

 comparison, and he will therefore trust more to memory 

 than to actual examination. Unless, therefore, he is a 

 very nice and cautious observer, he will be frequently 

 deceived. Colour, of course, is one of the best, or, at 

 least, one of the most obvious distinctions of species ; but 

 it is by no means the only one ; and, in some particular 

 tribes, it is none at all. The whole of the drongo 

 shrikes (Edolince) are entirely of a black colour, more 

 or less glossy, with a tail more or less forked. At 

 first sight the greater part appear to be the same, and 

 yet we possess near fifteen species, from various parts 

 of the old world, which are quite distinct. The tree- 

 creepers, again, of tropical America, forming the en- 

 tire genus Dendrocolaptes, have all precisely the same 

 coloured plumage, and yet we already know of near 

 twenty species, distinguished by their size, and the com- 

 parative length, shape, and curvature of their bills. The 

 American flycatchers, both large and small, can only be 

 discriminated when compared with each other after they 

 are preserved, or by close attention to their different 

 habits and notes when alive. We wish not to advocate 

 indiscriminate slaughter, but whenever the sportsman 

 observes any shade of difference in the manners of a 

 bird from that species which he conceives it to be, he 

 should secure the specimen, preserve it, and record its 

 peculiarity in his note-book. We always made it a point 

 of conscience never to throw away a bird after it had 

 been killed ; considering that its life would then have 

 been taken wantonly, and without any benefit either to 

 science or to useful information. 



(211.) We may now proceed to notice the countries 

 whose ornithology requires the most investigation, and 

 where the collector will be most likely to meet with new 

 or interesting species. For this purpose we shall take a 

 rapid survey of the five zoological provinces of the 

 world here characterised ; viz. Europe, Asia, Africa, 

 America, and Australia ; introducing under each head 

 such remarks as may serve to direct the attention of the 



