INTRODUCTION. 
Of all the classes of animals by which we are surrounded in 
the ample field of Nature, there are none more remarkable in 
their appearance and habits than the feathered inhabitants of 
the air. They play around us like fairy spirits, elude approach 
in an element which defies our pursuit, soar out of sight in the 
yielding sky, journey over our heads in marshalled ranks, dart 
like meteors in the sunshine of summer, or, seeking the soiitary 
recesses of the forest and the waters, they glide before us like 
beings of fancy. They diversify the still landscape with the 
most lively motion and beautiful association ; they come and 
go with the change of the season ; and as their actions are di- 
rected by an uncontrollable instinct of provident Nature, they 
may be considered as concomitant with the beauty of the sur- 
rounding scene. With what grateful sensations do we involun- 
tarily hail the arrival of these faithful messengers of spring and 
summer, after the lapse of the dreary winter, which compelled 
them to forsake us for more favored climes. Their songs, now 
heard from the leafy groves and shadowy forests, inspire de- 
light, or recollections of the pleasing past, in every breast. 
How volatile, how playfully capricious, how musical and happy, 
are these roving sylphs of Nature, to whom the air, the earth, 
and the waters are alike habitable ! Their lives are spent in 
boundless action ; and Nature, with an omniscient benevo- 
lence, has assisted and formed them for this wonderful display 
of perpetual life and vigor, in an element almost their own. 
