4 
INTRODUCTION. 
sheep and goat afford information respecting the numerous 
class of ruminating animals, which inhabit parched deserts, 
or the precipitous regions of rocks and mountains. But in 
the class of Birds the case is different: many, it is true, and 
perhaps some of the most singular as well as most beautiful, 
are seldom accessible; hut of those which meet us at every 
turn, which cheer our solitary walk with their song, or display 
before us their various instincts and prominent occupations, 
the number is immense. Of about one hundred and twenty 
genera, about half are to he met with in this country, and 
frequently under circumstances favourable for ascertaining 
their habits and modes of life. Every field and garden, 
every tree and hedge-row, may prove the prolific source of 
delightful interest and information; for a trifling attention 
will enable an observer to distinguish, when on the wing, 
high in mid-air, or flitting from spray to spray, the genus to 
which every species belongs. In short, not a day passes hut 
a lover' of nature may record in his journal, anecdotes and 
hints from whence a store of practical knowledge may he 
derived. In the country, an acquaintance with the feathered 
creation is like the acquisition of another sense, limited by 
neither season nor situation ; their periodical journeys to 
and from regions far remote, their mysterious and wonderful 
instincts adapted to their respective situations, are all sources 
of inexhaustible interest. The spring, the summer, the 
autumn, and the winter, have each their corresponding 
interests'. There is, moreover, a remarkable uniformity 
amongst Birds, which does not exist in Quadrupeds ; for 
instance, a lion and an armadillo, a giraffe or a mole, are as 
different as living creatures can he conceived to he ; hut in 
Birds, excepting in size, and the natural division between the 
land and water families, a greater similarity is discoverable; 
a circumstance which enables us to treat more briefly the 
particular history of their several subdivisions. 
