INTRODUCTION. 
UR object being rather to furnish the reader with rational 
and interesting facts, than systematic arrangements, 
it is not intended to treat the subject of Ornithology^ 
scientifically. But at a period when the education of every 
class of the community is rapidly improving, and when the 
minds of the rising generation are in a state of advancement, 
fitting them for that more perfect knowledge, which, in the 
preparation of elementary books, ought always to be kept in 
view, it is of importance that even the simplest work should 
be arranged and founded, in some degree, on scientific 
principles. We shall therefore commence with a few 
introductory remarks on those : peculiar features in the 
formation and habits of Birds, by which they are distin- 
guished from other branches of the animal creation; evincing 
as they do, that uniform and beautiful adaptation of means 
to the accomplishment of certain ends, which characterize 
every branch of the creation ; each in its respective perfec- 
tion, proving beyond contradiction, that as “ the works of 
the Lord are manifold, so in wisdom hath He made them 
all.” 
The visible creation, it has been well said, was Adam’s 
library. There may be times, places, and occasions, in 
which a page out of a book in that library may impart not 
only instruction to the head, but consolation to the heart. 
When that persevering traveller, Mungo Park, was at one 
period of his perilous course fainting in the vast wilderness 
of an African desert, naked and alone, considering his days 
as numbered, and nothing appearing to remain for him but 
to lie down and die, a small moss flower of extraordinary 
beauty caught his eye. “ Though the whole plant,” says 
