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PREFACE. 
In the pages of a well-known Latin poet, there is a remark to the 
effect that words spoken to the ear alone often are forgotten, hut that 
they retain their hold if impressed upon the memory by the aid of the 
eye. 
On this principle this little work has been undertaken, greater stress 
being laid upon the illustrations than on the description. In the letter- 
press will, however, be found sufficient information to give the name and 
general habits of each bird, together with the country which it inhabits. 
In so small a work it is manifestly impossible to give more than a few 
out of the vast multitudes of the feathered tribes, or to devote much space 
to describing the specimens which have been selected. The reader will, 
however, find that those birds have been chosen which serve as the types 
of the various groups into which the Birds have been divided by zoologists, 
and that almost every important group is represented by one or more 
examples. 
The arrangement which has been followed is that of the British 
Museum ; and the young reader will find that the book will act as a 
