INTRODUCTION. 
27 
ones. Some rock-pigeons now fiy out, and you wonder how 
birds so beautiful should consort with these dingy croakers. 
As we proceed, leaving the breeding-colonies, some great 
Black-backed Gulls, Herring-Gulls, and Terns, hover around 
us, and on the distant point we perceive a troop of Oyster- 
catchers. But the winds and the waves are rising, a strong 
current sets in from the ocean, and we must bear away for 
the landing-place. 
Should the ornithologist endeavour to make himself in 
some measure acquainted with rocks and plants, he would be 
so much the better qualified for his own particular profession. 
There is nothing incompatible in these branches of Natural 
History ; and, therefore, he needs not regard the sneers of 
collectors in any particular department, who, having a mere 
dry technical knowledge of their own favourite branch, at- 
tempt on all occasions, for the purpose of commending them- 
selves, to throw discredit on those who profess a little ac- 
quaintance with it ; whereas they ought, in the exercise of 
a liberal spirit and of Christian charity, to invite all to par- 
take in the pleasures which they themselves experience. In 
all professions there are illiberal and mean-spirited indivi- 
duals, whose delight it is to thwart all who do not side with 
them ; and in ornithology I have met with such, but their 
opposition has had no effect in impeding my progress. With 
a sound body, a clear conscience, a good gun, and a note- 
book, pencil, and knife, the student of ornithology may bid 
defiance to all opponents and detractors, and with light steps 
tread the heath or climb the mountain-slope. Friends en- 
gaged in similar pursuits will sympathize with him, and kin- 
dred minds, even if removed hundreds of miles from each 
other, will indicate their mutual affinity by kind acts. In 
this respect, however, the ornithologist does not differ from 
the cultivator of any other branch of Natural History. 
There may be countries more favourable for the acquisi- 
tion of ornithological knowledge than this ; but still, the 
Briton has a wide field in his native land. Many of the 
