PREFACE. 
THE patrons of the American Ornithology are now pre- 
sented with the eighth volume of this work, which, unfortunately 
for the interest of science, was left unfinished by its ingenious and 
indefatigable author. It was the intention of Mr. Wilson to com- 
plete the whole in nine volumes ; and he was rapidly advancing 
to a close, when he was suddenly arrested in his honorable and 
useful career by a mandate from that Power who so often frus- 
trates human purposes ; and whose mighty scheme of Providence 
no created being can comprehend. 
The historical part of the present volume was completed and 
printed off, and all the plates, except one, were engraved, under the 
superintendence of the author himself. But from the defection of 
those on whom he had relied for assistance in the coloring of his 
subjects, and the great difficulty of immediately procuring others 
competent to the task, this branch of the work did not keep pace 
with the rest ; and hence the publication of the volume has been 
delayed by causes beyond the control of those on whom, at Mi-. 
Wilson’s death, his affairs dcA'olved. But this delay, we trust, has 
been of benefit to the work, as it enabled us to employ an artist 
who formerly gained the confidence of the author by his skill, and 
