INTRODUCTION. 
XCV 
particular path, Messrs Catesby and Edwards, 
whose memories he truly respects. But as a sacred 
regard to truth requires that the errors or inadver- 
tencies of those authors, as well as of others, should 
be noticed, and corrected, let it not be imputed to 
unworthy motives, but to its true cause,— a zeal 
for the promotion of that science, in which these 
gentlemen so much delighted, and for which they 
have done so much. 
From the writers of our own country the author 
has derived but little advantage. The first con- 
siderable list of our birds was published in 1787, 
by Mr Jefferson, in his celebrated “ Notes on 
Virginia,” and contains the names of a hundred 
and nine species, with the designations of Linnaeus 
and Catesby, and references to Buffon. The next, 
and by far the most complete that has yet appeared, 
was published in 1791, by Mr William Bartram, 
in his Travels through North and South Caro- 
lina , &c. in which two hundred and fifteen different 
species are enumerated, and concise descriptions 
and characteristics of each added in Latin and 
English. Dr Barton, in his Fragments of the 
Natural History of Pennsylvania , has favoured 
us with a number of remarks on this subject; and 
Dr Belknap, in his History of New Hampshire, 
as well as Dr Williams, in that of Vermont, have 
