INTRODUCTION. xciii 
have increased the number of orders to an unne- 
cessary extent, multiplied the genera, and, out of 
mere varieties, produced what they supposed to 
be entire new species. Others, sensible of the 
impropriety of this, and wishing to simplify the 
science as much as possible, have reduced the 
orders and genera to a few, and have thus thrown 
birds, whose food, habits, and other characteris- 
tical features are widely different, into one and 
the same tribe, and thereby confounded our per- 
ception of that beautiful gradation of affinity and 
resemblance, which Nature herself seems to have 
been studious of preserving throughout the whole. 
One principal cause of the great diversity of clas- 
sifications appears to be owing to the neglect, or 
want of opportunity, in these writers, of observing 
the manners of the living birds, in their unconfined 
state, and in their native countries. As well might 
philosophers attempt to class mankind into their 
respective religious denominations, by a mere 
examination of their physiognomy, as naturalists 
to form a correct arrangement of animals, without 
a knowledge of these necessary particulars. 
It is only by personal intimacy, that we can truly 
ascertain the character of either, more especially 
that of the feathered race, noting their particular 
haunts, modes of constructing their nests, manner 
9 
