( no ) 
former Hiftories on the fame Subjedls with what I have here prefented to the Publick) 
will think I had good Reafon for making fome Amendments : The far greatefl 
Part of thefe Figures are from Subjeds entirely new, their Defcriptions therefore mufl 
confequently be new, as are the Defcriptions of thofe treated of before by others • yet 
that there might be nothing wanting to perfed this Work, I have fometimes, where 
I thought it neceffary, joined to my own Defcriptions the Obfervations of Authors, 
as well Foreigners as my own Countrymen. I have not done this, to the beft of my 
Knowledge, without particularly mentioning the Author’s Name, or the Book from 
whence it was borrowed ; and where I have quoted but a hngle Line, I have dif- 
tinguifhed it by the ufual Marks. I have been as perfed in this Work as the Nature 
of the Thing will admit of, in order to fit it to be added to a new general Orni- 
thology (which, I think, is wanting) in Cafe any one, fit for the Tafk, fhould un- 
dertake it. It may not be here improper to give my Thoughts on that Subjed; the 
Study of which has lain dormant for many Years : I know no Englijh Author who 
has wrote any Thing confiderable fince Mr. Ray revifed Willoughby's manufcript Hif- 
tory of Birds, which was publifhed Anno 1678; till of later Years, Mr. Ray hath 
added fome few, which fee in his Synopfis Method, Avium^ &c. where he has men- 
tioned the Authors from whom he colleded them. The Memoirs of the Academy 
Royal of Paris, on fuch Occafion, ought alfo to be confulted, where fomething new 
may be colleded. Mr. Cafesby, in his Hidory of Carolina, &c. hath figured and de- 
fcribed upwards of a hundred rare Birds, the greated Part of which would come into 
a new Hidory, they being modly non-defcripts, Albin hath piiblidied a great many, 
I think upv/ards of 300 Figures ^ but they being chiefly colleded from Willoughbv, \ 
Compiler mud: look cautioufly on him ^ what nev/ Birds he has worthy of any No- 
tice are from Mr. Dandridges Colledion, the Originals of which I have feen, and 
could wifh Albin's Copies after them had been better ; for what is. well done after 
Nature itfelf will be always valuable. Albin has given fome Draughts of Birds, which, 
he fays, were from Sir Thomas Lowther's Colledion, but I am very doubtful as to 
them, they being taken from Drawings done by fome very mean Performer, which 
Albin has not thought proper to confefs. By Accident I happened to meet with 
fome of thefe Drawings, which has confirmed me in the Truth of what I fay. 
The Natural H-idories we have bad in England, till of late Years, are modly Tranda- 
tions from other Languages, which has rendered the Underdanding of them fome- 
what difdcult for I believe it altogether impradicable to make a Trandation run fo 
fmooth and intelligible as the Original from which one tranflates, without loodng a 
good Deal of the true Senfe and Meaning of its Author : This we daily difcover in 
Tranflators, who are forced, in fome particular Parts, to give the Words of the drd 
Author in the Margin, becaufe they cannot be intelligibly rendered in the Language 
of the Trandator j fo that being in its original Language is always an Advantage to 
a Book, becaufe Tranflations mud neceffarily, at lead in fome fmall Degree, give 
the Readers of them diflfcrent Ideas from the Originals : This Book hath the Advan- 
tage to be Original in its Figures, as well as its Defcriptions 5 not one of the former 
being copied from others, or the latter either tranflated. or tmnfcribed* 
