PREFACE. vii 



have never before been taken notice of by naturalists, a complete 

 detail of their habitudes and manners cannot reasonably be ex- 

 pected. To collect these, years of patient and attentive observa- 

 tion are requisite. What with truth and accuracy he could do, he 

 has done. In the drawings he has aimed at faithful and charac- 

 teristic resemblances of his subjects. — In the literary part at a clear 

 and interesting detail of their manners, as far as these have come to 

 his know ledge ; and to future observation must be left the task of 

 filling up those chasms in the history of some of them, which the 

 so recent discovery of their species has rendered unavoidable. 



To gentlemen of leisure, resident in the country, whose taste 

 disposes them to the pleasing and rational amusements of natural 

 history, and who may be in possession of facts, authentic and inte- 

 resting, relative to any of our birds which have not yet made their 

 appearance in this work, the author again earnestly and respect- 

 fully addresses himself. Such is the barrenness of the best Euro- 

 pean works on the feathered tribes of the United States, and so 

 numerous are the mistakes (to call them by the gentlest name) with 

 which they are disfigured, that little has been, or indeed can be, 

 derived from that quarter. On his own personal exertions and ob- 

 servation the author has chiefly depended. But, numerous as his 

 subjects are, scattered over an immense territory, and pursuing 

 their vast and various migrations through different regions, as want 

 of food or change of seasons inspire, unless Heaven would kindly 

 accommodate him with wings, to follow as an aerial spy on their 

 proceedings ; or, (which is more likely to happen) his fellow-citi- 

 zens, lovers of their country, and well wishers to its arts and lite- 



