INTRODUCTION. 



V 



judged it my indispensable duty to make, should give pain. The 

 offer to print any reply to my arguments which might be sent 

 me, exculpates me, I conceive, from all charges of a personal 

 nature ; and it would grieve me much, if my dislike to their 

 doctrines and language, has, in any instance, betrayed me to 

 infringe upon the courtesy and decorum which ought uniformly 

 to characterise such discussions. To enter into any compromise 

 with error, would be unpardonable weakness and delinquency ; 

 but to endeavour, by contempt or abuse, to hurt the feelings of 

 the person judged to be in error, would exhibit the character of 

 a bully or a ruffian. 



VI. The classification of Naturalists according to the character 

 of their works, which closes this introduction, is an imperfect 

 attempt to direct the student in his choice of books, according to 

 his peculiar wants and wishes. 



VII. In the body of the work, I have made very considerable 

 alterations in the arrangement. The author, in the first edition, 

 seems to have aimed at giving, as far as the letters of the alphabet 

 would permit, all the species of a genus together ; hence under 

 Duck, we had Duck-Eider, Duck-King ; and under Gull, 

 we had Gull-Herring, Gull-Laughing, &c, an unnecessary 

 awkwardness, attended with no apparent advantage. The ar- 

 rangement of these in a straight-forward manner, has cost no little 

 trouble. In the article Warbler, again, this principle led the 

 author to include birds, which are not now arranged with War- 

 blers, such as the Hedge Sparrow ; and the placing of two birds 

 together because they resembled each other, with the distinction 

 only of greater and lesser, served to propagate confusion. I have, 

 therefore, adopted for the Petty Chaps-Greater, the conti- 

 nental name Fauvette ; for the Petty Chaps-Lesser, the pro- 

 vincial name Chiff-Chaff; and for the White Throat-Lesser, 

 the continental name, Babillard. In many other instances, I 

 have adopted the provincial name in preference to one of book 

 origin, the latter often consisting of several words, and being 

 therefore awkward in a Dictionary. Any supposed inconvenience 

 arising from these changes, is obviated by all the known names 

 being inserted in their due order in the alphabet, and also under 



