ye oe RERUEEPACHEY 
however fanétioned- by authority, when they 
happened not to be congenial with our own 
fentiments. To trace the final caufes, or the 
reafons of the difference in the various claffes 
of birds and beafts, is the firft and mof effen- 
tial obje€t. to purfue in the ftudy of) mature. . 
To look for differences, as fome have done, 
only to gratify a prepoffeffion for novelty, 
without improving the. mind or amending the 
heart, is to turn Natural Hiftory into a raree- 
fhow, inftead of adopting it asa {cience. 
To avoid that tedious detail of defcription 
which tires by its famenefs, and confufes by 
its intricacy, we have fpecified. only thofe 
charaéteriftics that were effential to notice, in 
order to be able to diftinguifh one animal from 
another: But, in this, the peculiar beauties are 
snore particularly noticed than any deviation’ 

