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INTRODUCTION. 
us with astonishment at the power, wisdom, and 
beneficence of the Creator ! 
In proportion as we become acquainted with 
these particulars, 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 acquaintances ; and, in the notes 
of every 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 obtain a more perfect knowledge of 
birds, naturalists have divided them into classes, 
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 
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