INTRODUCTION 



3 



an amazing diversity in habit, economy, form, disposition and fa- 

 culties, so miiformly hereditary in each species, and so completely 

 adequate to their peculiar wants and convenience, as to over- 

 whelm us with astonishment at the power, wisdom and beneficence 

 of the Creator ! 



In proportion as we become acquainted with these particulars, 

 our visits to, and residence in the country, become more and more 

 agreeable. Formerly, on such occasions, we found ourselves in so- 

 litude, or, with respect to the feathered tribes, as it were in a strange 

 country, where the manners, language and faces of all were either 

 totally overlooked, or utterly unknown to us: now, we find our- 

 selves among interesting and well-known neighbours and acquaint- 

 ances ; and, in the notes of every songster, recognize with satisfac- 

 tion the voice of an old friend and companion. A study thus tend- 

 ing to multiply our enjoyments at so cheap a rate, and to lead us, 

 by such pleasing gradations, to the contemplation and worship of 

 the Great First Cause, the Father and Preserver of all, can neither 

 be idle nor useless, but is worthy of rational beings, and doubtless 

 agreeable to the Deity. 



In order to attain a more perfect knowledge of Birds, natu- 

 ralists have divided them into Classes, Orders, Genera, Species, and 

 Varieties ; but in doing this, scarcely two have agreed on the same 

 mode of arrangement, and this has indeed proved a source of great 

 perplexity to the student. Some have increased the number of 

 orders to an unnecessary extent, multiplied the genera, and, out 

 of mere varieties, produced what they supposed to be entire new 

 species. Others, sensible of the impropriety of this, and wishing 

 to simplify the science, as much as possible, have reduced the or- 

 ders and genera to a few, and have thus thrown birds, whose food, 

 habits and other characteristical features are widely different, into 

 one and the same tribe, and thereby confounded our perception of 

 that beautiful gradation of affinity and resemblance, which Nature 

 herself seems to have been studious of preserving throughout the 



