PREFACE. 
V 
however fan€iioned by authority^ when they 
happened not to be congenial xvith ottr own 
fentiments. To trace the final caufes, or the 
reafons of the difi"erence in the various clafi'es 
of birds and beafts, is the firfl and moft efi'en- 
tial objedl to purfue in ike fiudy of nature. 
'To look for difi'erences, as fome have done, 
only to gratify a prepoJJ'effion for novelty, 
without improvhig the mind or amending the 
heart, is to. turn natural hifiory into a raree- - 
fiiow, infledd of adopting it as a jcience. 
To. avoid that tedious detail of defc7'iption 
which tires by its JamejieJs, and confujes by its 
intricacy^, we have fpecified only thofe charac- 
teriflics that were ejjeniial to notice, in order 
to : be able to diflinguifh 07te a7ti7nal from an- 
other i but, in this, the peculiar beauties are 
',nore particularly 7ioticed than a7iy deviation of ^ 
colour or for7}i, that had no quality to recorn- . 
mend it to our attention. 
JVith reJpeCi to the arrange7ne77t, we have . 
endeavoured to prejhit it as fyfiematically to 
our readers, as an abridge7}7C7it could pojjibly ■ 
admit. That the fiudent 7night knoxu of what ' 
fpecies every bird a7id beajt was, which this 
volume contains, they are dejcribed in the or- 
der of their refpedive clajfes. Whenever there 
were more of a fpecies tha7i the limits of the e 
work would admit of being dejc7'ibecl, they are 
fpecified by na7ne, according to the 7ncfi ac- 
curate jiaturalifis. 
A- 2.. . /)l^‘ 
