INTRODUCTION. 
XC1 
But as time may prey on the best of colours, 
what is necessary, in this respect, will, by no means, 
be omitted, that the figures and descriptions may 
mutually corroborate each other. It is also my 
design to enter more largely than usual into the 
manners and disposition of each respective species ; 
to become, as it were, their faithful biographer, and 
to delineate their various peculiarities, in character, 
song, building, economy, &c. as far as my own 
observations have extended, or the kindness of 
others may furnish me with materials. 
The Ornithology of the United States exhibits a 
rich display of the most splendid colours, from the 
green, silky, gold bespangled down of the minute 
humming bird, scarce three inches in extent, to 
the black coppery wings of the gloomy condor, of 
sixteen feet, who sometimes visits our northern 
regions ; a numerous and powerful band of song- 
sters, that, for sweetness, variety, and melody, are 
surpassed by no country on earth ; an ever-changing 
scene of migration from torrid to temperate, and 
from northern to southern regions, in quest of 
suitable seasons, food, and climate ; and such an 
amazing diversity in habit, economy, form, dispo- 
sition, and faculties, so uniformly hereditary in 
each species, and so completely adequate to their 
peculiar wants and convenience, as to overwhelm 
