ORNITHOLOGY. 
762 
fwallows, on the 6th of October, not far from the African 
coaft, as a decifive proof that the common fwallows, when 
they difappear in Europe, make for Africa during the 
■winter, and return again to us in the fpring. Barrington's 
EJfays. 
ORNITHOL'OGY, f. [from the Gr. a 
bird, and Aoyoc, a difcourfe.] That branch of natural hif- 
tory which coniiders and defcribes the natures and kinds, 
the form external and internal, and the economy and ufes, 
of Birds. 
Birds have been defined as “ two-footed animals, co¬ 
vered with feathers, and furnifhed with wings.” Like 
quadrupeds and the cetaceous tribe, they have warm 
blood, a heart with two ventricles and two auricles, and 
lungs for the purpofe of refpiration. They are, however, 
diftinguifhed from both by their feet, feathers, wings, and 
horny bill, as well as by the circumftance of their females 
being oviparous. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The elegant and beautiful colouring of many of the 
feathered race, the graceful eafe of their flight, their va¬ 
rious miilic, their tender folicitude for their offspring, 
their engaging inftinfts, their fufceptibility of domeftica- 
tion, and their fubfervience to the fuftenance of man, 
have, in all ages, contributed to intereft the latter in the 
ftudy of their hiftory. 
Of the naturalifts however, whofe writings have de- 
fcended to us from antiquity, Ariftotle and Pliny are the 
only two who appear to have entered into any details on 
afubjedt fo inviting and important. Though the former 
compofed no particular treatife on birds, he brings them 
under review in different parts of his Hiftory of Animals. 
In the third chapter of the eighth book, for example, he 
enumerates the different forts of nourifhment adapted to 
different fpecies, and their various modes of feeding. 
The ninth book contains his very imperfeft nomencla¬ 
ture, his remarks on the diverfified modes of nidification, 
and fome valuable obfervations on the family of eagles. 
His notions of the organization and habitudes of birds are 
interfperfed in the body of the work, and introduced in 
the way of comparative reference to the ftrufture and 
manners of other animals. Pliny’s enumeration of the 
feathered fpecies is extended over moft part of his tenth 
book j but is deftitute of precife defcription, and encum¬ 
bered with abfurdity and fable, 
Of the numerous ornithologifts of more modern date, 
fome have chiefly directed their labours to method and 
claflification, others have been more felicitous to deferibe 
and delineate 5 fome have treated of the whole clafs, others 
of particular portions of it ; while, laftly, fome have been 
contented to define and deferibe, and others have illuf- 
trated and enhanced their text by more or lefs accurate 
defigns from living or prepared fpecimens. This combi¬ 
nation of the pen and the pencil, which has fo eminently 
contributed, in our day, to the acquifition and diffufion 
of knowledge, feems to have been unknown to the an¬ 
cients. 
Among the firft who excited, on the continent, a tafte 
for the ftudy of ornithology, and for a methodical ciiftri- 
bution of that portion of Icience, we may mention Belon. 
Aware that nature is moft fuccefsfully contemplated in 
her own works, he travelled from the laudable defire of 
collecting information, and communicated to the world 
the refults of his enquiries. His Hiftory of Birds, a thin 
folio volume, divided into feven books, or parts, and il- 
luftrated by wooden cuts, was publiflied at Paris in 1555. 
His principle of claflification, being chiefly founded on the 
circumftances of habitation and food, apd only occafion- 
ally on external forms and characters, is obvioufly very 
defective; bis deferiptions, though tolerably accurate, 
are for the moft part too concife ; and many of his plates 
are very inadequate reprefentations of their originals. It 
mu ft at the fame time be allowed, that he frequently 
fuggefts judicious views of his fubjeCt j that he notes with 
ingenuity the points of refemblance between the human 
Ikeleton and that of birds; that he has penned feveral 
paflages which may ftill be perufed with intereft and in- 
ftruCtion ; that the naivete of his manner is al ways pleafin’gj 
and that, when we refleCt on the period in which he fl'ou- 
riflied, he is entitled to no ordinary praife. 
The celebrated Conrad Gefner, phyfician and profeffor 
at Zurich, and contemporary with Belon, has devoted the 
third volume of his Hiftory of Animals to the department 
of ornithology. It is an erudite but ponderous tome, 
exhibiting alphabetical tables of the names of birds, in 
Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic, Greek, Latin, and moft of the 
fpoken languages of Europe. His deferiptions are com¬ 
piled abridgments ; but his references, at the clofe of 
each article, are very numerous; for, if any author of his 
acquaintance happen to mention a bird, his name and the 
paffage are duly commemorated. Gefner’s arrangement 
differs in no refpedt from that of any common dictionary ; 
and few of his engravings are executed with correCtnefs. 
The curious reader will probably be gratified with the pe- 
tufal of his account of the art of rearing birds for fal¬ 
conry, the difeafes to which they are liable, and the re¬ 
medies which the learned dodtor preferibes. 
The fame topics are di feu fled by Aldrovandus, a phyfi¬ 
cian of Bolbgna, who, availing himfelf of the writings of 
the two preceding naturalifts, added to their indigefted 
ftores, and compiled three folios, divided into so books, 
and illuftrated by wooden cuts. His catalogue, however, 
fcarcely comprifes any birds but fuch as are natives of 
Europe, and by no means all even of thefe. He too im¬ 
plicitly adopts the vague diftindtions of Belon ; and, on 
various occafions, not only copies Ariftotle with fervility, 
but overlays his borrowed materials with a mafs of dark 
commentary. . 
Johnfton, who publiflied, in 1657, a folio volume of 
160 pages, did little elfe than condenfe the heavy com¬ 
plements of Gefner and Aldrovandus. He divides the 
whole clafs into land and water birds, and deduces his 
fubordinate divifions from the nature of their aliments. 
His deferiptions are generally corredt, but fcanty; and 
even his figures, though traced with more charadter than 
thofe of his predeceffors, befpeak a parfimonyof engraving. 
The next writer of eminence in this department who 
merits particular quotation, is Francis Willoughby, or 
Willughby, efq. an Englifli gentleman, who laid the 
foundation of a more accurate arrangement. His work, 
which appeared in 1676, was revifed and edited by his 
friend, the celebrated Ray. It is divided into three books, 
of which the firft is allotted to general views of the fub- 
jedt, and an explanation of the author’s method. The 
firft chapter treats of the form and external ftrodture 
of birds, the fecond of their organization and internal 
ftrudture. The fixth includes 24, queries, the anfwers to 
which, if founded on faff, would greatly contribute to 
the advancement of ornithology. Mr. Willoughby for¬ 
mally recognizes the grand divilion of terreftrial and aqua¬ 
tic; comprifing under the former thofe which live at a dis¬ 
tance from water, and under the fecond thofe which live 
on the margin or furface of that element. He then in- 
ftitutes his leading diftindtions from the form of the bill 
and feet, and would doubtlefs have accomplilhed a more 
complete arrangement, had he uniformly adhered to the 
fame principle; but, in compliance with the prejudices of 
his time, he a flumes the different kinds of food, the varie¬ 
ties of fize, the nature of the flefh, and even moral qua¬ 
lities, as the grounds of fubdivifions. At all events-, 
however, he has the credit of having opened a career, 
which others have fuccefsfully purfued. His fecond and 
third books contain the defcription and hiftory of the 
fpecies, diftributed according to the rules laid down in 
the firft. To the expofition of each genus are prefixed 
two chapters of general obfervations 5 the firft including 
the vague or fabulous accounts of the ancients, and the 
fecond fuch common properties as appertain to the genus. 
The author then proceeds to the fpecific details, itating 
1 the 
