PREFACE- 



THE patrons of the American Ornithology are now pre- 

 sented with the eighth volume of that work, which, unfortunately 

 for the interest of science, was left unfinished by its ingenious and 

 indefatigable author. It was the intention of Mr. Wilson to com- 

 plete the whole in nine volumes ; and he was rapidly advancing 

 to a close, when he was suddenly arrested in his honorable and 

 useful career, by a mandate from that Power, who so often frus- 

 trates human purposes ; and whose mighty scheme of Providence 

 no created being can comprehend. 



The historical part of the present volume was fully complet- 

 ed and printed off; and all the plates, except one, were engraved, 

 imder the superintendence of the author himself. But from the 

 defection of those on whom he had relied for assistance in the 

 coloring of his subjects, and the great difficulty of immediately 

 procuring others competent to the task, that branch of the work 

 did not keep pace with the rest; and hence the publication of the 

 volume has been delayed, by causes beyond the control of those 

 on whom, at Mr. Wilson's death, his affairs devolved. But this 

 delay, we trust, has been of benefit to the work, as it enabled us to 

 employ an artist who formerly gained the confidence of the author 



