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APPENDIX. 



have thought fit to laud one man exceedingly for his 

 zoological acquirements, who, to my certain knowledge, 

 paid other people for the letterpress and drawings 

 which were to appear in his work. You raise expecta- 

 tions in your readers, that ornithological information 

 from Demerara (information " passed over by the mere 

 Amateur") will be procured ere long by an individual 

 engaged in an exploring expedition up the country; 

 when you ought to be aware that the very nature of an 

 exploring expedition precludes the possibility of pro- 

 curing satisfactory information of birds, whose economy 

 is so varied, whose nidification is so mysterious, and whose 

 plumage is so perpetually on the change. 



I myself have passed years in the heart of that country ; 

 still I could never obtain the least insight into the incu- 

 bation of the Chatterers ; whilst the appearance of some 

 birds, and the disappearance of others, without any visible 

 cause, used to puzzle me beyond measure. 



I have killed the large grey pelican on the coast of 

 Faumaron, where it never breeds ; but I was told that 

 I should find its nest at the mouth of the Oronoque. 

 The Indians there knew nothing of its nidification; 

 and though the bird was plentiful at Antigua, not a soul 

 could direct me to its breeding-place. 



Under these apparently insurmountable embarrass- 

 ments, I could never bring my mind to give to the public 

 a general history of the Demerara birds. 



You might have spared yourself the lamentation, that 

 Demerara has only been visited by Amateurs, " whose 

 sole object seems to have been that of procuring perfect 

 skins," had you but called to your recollection the con- 

 days." — See Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopcedia, Natural History 

 of Birds j by William Swainson, Esq., vol. i. Alas ! poor 

 Audubon ! 



