PREFACE. 



THE fifth volume of this extensive work is submitted to the 

 public with all due deference and respect; and the author having 

 nowj as he conjectures, reached the middle stage of his journey^ or, 

 in traveller's phrase, the * half-way house,' may be permitted to in- 

 dulge himself with a slight retrospect of the ground he has already 

 traversed, and a glimpse of that which still lies before him. 



The whole of our Land Birds (those of the sixth volume in- 

 cluded, which are nearly ready for the press) have now been figured 

 and described, probably a very few excepted, which, it is hoped^ 

 will also shortly be obtained. These have been gleaned up from 

 an extensive territory of woods and fields, unfrequented forests, so* 

 litary ranges of mountains, swamps and morasses, by successive 

 journies and excursions of more than ten thousand miles. With 

 all the industry which a single individual could possibly exert, se- 

 veral species have doubtless escaped him. These, future expedi- 

 tions may enable him to procure; or the kindness of his distant 

 literary friends obligingly supply him with. 



In endeavouring to collect materials for describing truly and 

 fully our feathered tribes, he has frequently had recourse to the 

 works of those European naturalists who have written on the sub- 



VOL, V. B 



