vi PREFACE. 



Having been informed that Mr. (now I believe 

 Professor) Macgillivray, in the first volume of 

 his Ornithology, has compared me to the carrion 

 crow, a bird acknowledged by the world at 

 large, to be of bad character and filthy habits ; 

 I take this opportunity (as I have not the com- 

 mand of a press) to observe that I am not aware 

 how I have procured the honour of such a dis- 

 tinguished attention ; and at the same time to 

 thank him for the store of tainted food which 

 he has helped to place in the Biography of 

 Birds, for the benefit of us needy ones of 

 rapine and ill omen. 



A word also of Mr. Swainson. He has 

 accused me in the Cabinet Cyclopaedia, edited 

 by the unfortunate Doctor Lardner, of a " con- 

 stant propensity to dress truth in the garb of 

 fiction ! " I need say no more if the reader 

 will do me the favour to peruse a former letter 

 of mine to Mr. Swainson. In justice to myself 

 I have appended it to the present work. 



