t 47 ] 



through all times. If natural hiftorians, or they 

 who draw for them, would carefully obferve thefe 

 rules, feme of them might, perhaps, produce 

 figures that would be deemed perfeél by the 

 knowing naturalifts of thefe times, and efcape 

 their cenfure ; then might they, like the cele- 

 brated ftatues of the ancient Greeks and Ro- 

 mans, pafs down as models to future ages, as 

 things juftly and truly reprefenting nature ; but 

 thefe things arc rather to be wilhed for than ex- 

 pelled. 



I have been as perfed: in my Natural Hiftory 

 as the nature of the thing will admit of, in or- 

 der that it may be added to a new general Orni- 

 thology (which, I think, is wanting) in cafe any 

 one fit for the tafk fhould undertake it. It may 

 not be here improper to give my thoughts on 

 that fubjed, the ftudy of which has lain dor- 

 mant for many years : I know no Englilli au- 

 thor who has wrote any thing confiderable fince 

 Mr. Ray revifed IVilloughhyh manufcript Hiftory 

 of Birds, which was publiflied anno 1678, till 

 of later years Mr. Ray hath added fome few, 

 which fee in his Synopjis Method, Avium j &c. 



where 



