18 
INTRODUCTION. 
nuously or at intervals, to tlie study of birds, needs be at no 
loss for opportunities. In almost any part of the country, ! 
about an hundred species may be procured without very i 
much difficulty, and the habits of many of them may be sa- ; 
tisfactorily studied. Specimens of an hundred and fifty | 
more may be examined in our public museums, which, al- I 
ready numerous, are yearly increasing ; and of the remainder | 
one may form some idea from their representations in books. 
Prepared skins may be obtained in the principal towns ; and i 
in preserving the objects which he may procure, the student 
may obtain the assistance of some of the numerous indivi- j 
duals who devote themselves to the preparation of birds. | 
Stuffed and mounted skins are not those most useful to j 
the ornithologist, they being too expensive, and requiring Ij 
too much accommodation. A collection of prepared skins, j 
partially stuffed, and arranged in the properly proportioned j 
drawers of a cabinet, or series of cabinets, will be found |l 
much more useful, and much less expensive. But without : 
possessing such a collection, or having free access to one, al- ! 
though the student may know birds by name, he will scarcely t 
acquire a critical knowledge of their characters, their dif- 
ferences, and points of agreement. 
Many persons, even professed naturalists, seem to think, j 
that when one can distinguish a bird from every other, name i 
it, assign it its place in an artificial or natural arrangement, 
and state some particulars of its habits and history, he knows 
all that is requisite. Such persons, having merely a dry 
technical sort of knowledge, have no idea of the pleasure, to 
be derived from an intimate study of the structure and func- 
tions of birds. A month’s study applied to half a dozen spe- 
cies, may afford more knowledge and more delight than the 
acquisition in the same period of merely the names and dis- 
tinctive characters of fifty or more. 
But few people can devote very much of their time to the 
study of birds, or of any other branch of natural history ; 
and to those whose leisure is not great, even the names and 
