INTRODUCTION. 
3 
formly hereditary in each species, and so completely adequate 
to their peculiar wants and convenience, as to overwhelm us 
with astonishment at the power, wisdom and beneficence of the 
Creator! 
In proportion as we become acquainted with these particu- 
lars, our visits to, and residence in the country, become more 
and more agreeable. Formerly, on such occasions, we found 
ourselves in solitude, or with respect to the feathered tribes, as 
it were in a strange country, where the manners, language and 
faces of all were either totally overlooked, or utterly unknown 
to us: now, we find ourselves among interesting and well- 
known neighbours and acquaintance; and, in the notes of eve- 
ry songster, recognize with satisfaction the voice of an old 
friend and companion. A study thus tending to multiply our 
enjoyments at so cheap a rate, and to lead us, by such pleasing 
gradations, to the contemplation and worship of the Great 
First Cause, the Father and Preserver of all, can neither be 
idle nor useless, but is worthy of rational beings, and doubtless 
agreeable to the Deity. 
In order to attain a more perfect knowledge of birds, natu- 
ralists have divided them into orders, genera, species, and 
varieties; but in doing this, scarcely two have agreed on 
the same mode of arrangement, and this has indeed proved a 
source of great perplexity to the student. Some have increas- 
ed the number of orders to an unnecessary extent, multiplied 
the genera, and, out of mere varieties, produced what they 
supposed to be entire new species. Others, sensible of the im- 
propriety of this, and wishing to simplify the science, as much 
as possible, have reduced the orders and genera to a few, and 
have thus thrown birds, whose food, habits and other charac- 
teristical features are widely different, into one and the same 
tribe, and thereby confounded our perception of that beautiful 
gradation of affinity and resemblance, which Nature herself 
seems to have been studious of preserving throughout the whole. 
One principal cause of the great diversity of classifications, ap- 
pears to be owing to the neglect, or want of opportunity, in 
