I I maa, of:.f t s ™ q»e £ ■ m - ' m * * I » • - 8 ? g i ® v » ■ » « “ “ “ “ ”“ ' ■" “ t e B
H R !„ thi. t e ; And H H M M « ¿ 1 ™ « « H ’' « ^ &• » » » ' m m * * » » * -■ h h ■
tot, Mr Jon» C...IV | » h e , mid™ nnd totep.ctod t a lk tl.U « to n e tout l „ t thd » « -v ta of one of >'"' "” * <l;',;”Sui* «
follower, and ,vl,„ gav. to a . Itofebtog o f the p l.t» V tl.U wort all tire tten.ttto o f 1.» knowtodge, acquired br f t , <*!— _
K l a w . « , » , . a , . 1 would acknowledge my « M b . — ™1 for a , loan at various period, of . m r t g f l |
- t o - of Id, P i Horn hi, ■ collection, M% o at all . 1 - , WM rcady to J M n.c ™U aid aa. was | i » power. Also to
(touts I am greatly .blittedfor » r c r .l tatotettog aceoanto of a , habit, o f wariouS species observed by tom . , Armona
“ 4 whom was entrusted a , prod.etion of the plates, irnve fatty „wtoined Itteir high r ep .a a .n , and it i,
.„nett pleasure I acknowledge a , skittttd eiccufiou displnycd by the»,
r L d a , ‘ wings, ■ wtttob ado™ the In— u, were drawn M | with the greatest cure and B B H I
g ™ S a m , . , of a o lU U d p b b Academy of Katmal Sciences, and were engr.yed by Mr. W. L»ro»,-W_o, ’
occupies L c highest rank 1 his profession, and whose abilities are eye^rhere acknowledged. It to mmeete.ry for, | .... .
attention to the skill h e « «hibitcd by rids artist, it need, but to be .seen to be appreciated.
The impressions are all India pro.ib,-issued by the University Press, under the snpervnnon of Air. l ™ . M M
I And now, in concteion, a . A.toor wo.ld especially remember H who, «ding U with their patronage, have „ „ „ ttou, any
others contributed toward toe completion o f this, fl.c most crtenstoc of hi, ornithological works; and wr.o^by con.mn-.ng tog,
throngliont the yen* daring which tins publication lm. eatended, have ¡encotoaged him to pmevere m h.s tobors, and rendered to -
that assistance, without which no effort of this character could ever result successfully.
Nora.—On account of Ms instructions not having been complied with, the Anthor was obliged at the last
rtar.rn.nt to remove the blocks of the engravings from the hands of the proprietors of the University Press.
Messrs. D. Appleton & Oo. kfcdly allowed them to be printed at their establishment, and the manner in
wMeh it has been accomplished, the Anthor is happy to think, leaves nothing to be desired.
I N T R O D U C T I O N
ORNITHOLOGY, to the lover of the beautiful, to him who delights in the gay aud bright beings of nature, is one of the most
attractive of the various branches of natural science. He, who passes through life without a knowledge of the feathered creatures
constantly surrounding his path in the fields aud woods, rendering vocal with bursts of melody the groves and sombre places of the
forest, pleasing the eye as they flit in dresses o f many colors around the habitation, or teaching the much needed lesson of ceaseless
effort and patient care, as they watch over and provide for, the helpless nestlings,—loses one of the chief means by which his own
existence might be made more cheerful and contented, and fails to understand one of the most pleasing and attractive of all the
creations of Omnipotence.
That person whose life is devoted to agricultural pursuits, and by his ignorance of the habits of his feathered friends, is led to .
a blind, in<u<H>rimin«t.A slaughter o f the very beings whose instincts teach them to work for his benefit,—probably only learns the error
he has committed, after failing crops and barren fields prove to him that the death of his little winged help-mates has but given new
life and vigor to the hurtful grub and destructive insects which have passed over the land, leaving but a desert behind.
Investigation., of ornithological science has progressed rapidly within the last half century, aud much light has been thrown upon
many difficult and perplexing subjects, encouraging the worker to persevere, although so much still uncomprehended lies beyond. One
great evidence of progress is, that Ornithologists are more and more turning their attention to the study of the anatomy of their subjects,
and in the bony structure and formation of the soft parts find truths which no investigation of the outside covering, however minute,
to which so many confine themselves, can possibly reveal.
The want of knowledge in that perplexing problem: What constitutes a species? the seeming impossibility to afford some
explanation of this mystery which may be acceptable to all—the apparently hasty manner in many cases, in which birds are described
as distinct from all those heretofore known—the general shunning of varieties, those unwelcome facts which are met with when least
expected or desired, bringing to naught some of the most plausible theories—all together warn us that it is best to proceed with
caution towards our conclusions, lest our labors should be but vanity, our castles only b u ilt in the air.
Of the making of species, even as was said , of books, by the Wise man of old1, there is no end.
Every naturalist, although perhaps unable to give a definition Of what a species is, which may be acceptable to his fellow-laborers,
has nevertheless some idea, of what may be necessary for an animal to possess in order to occupy such a rank, and completes his own
work guided, in the majority of cases, from his individual view of the matter. Thus various methods of treating a subject, and much
confusion* not infrequently arise.
* Genera and species are, in many instances, arbitrary terms, .founded at times not so much upon information received, from which
a, decision has been satisfactorily reached, as upon a supposition that allowed an opinion to be hastily formed with o u t a sufficient
knowledge of the subject having been first attained, to prove that the conclusion arrived at was entirely correct.
A species may be defined as that being, which has the power of reproducing itself, of transmitting its prominent peculiarities regularly
to its descendants, and at the same time presenting characters radically distinct front those found elsewhere.
And although in the majority of instances perhaps, some such idea as that just expressed, has influenced the action of Ornithologists,
yet however, specimens have been given specific rank, which presented but the slightest variation from well-known forms, and this
refining process has occasionally been carried to such an extreme, that the merest difference of shade in color has been deemed sufficient
to constitute a species—nay, a still greater stop h a s been taken, and examples have been described as distinct which so closely resembled
others, that, should the labels which indicated them, be lost, the describer himself would be unable to distinguish one from the other.
Such manner of procedure admits of no dcfisnse.
• varieties occur in every class of created beings, and are the result of various causes, usually originating in the parent stock; and
by seizing upon one of these, which may exhibit only a trifling divergence id form, or color of plumage, from that which has perhaps
been long known and accepted as a species, and elevating it to a separate rank, the describer at best but anticipates, as a fixed fact,
a re su lt"w h ic h the variety, under the most favorable auspices, would have probably been a long period in reaching, and which also
might never have progressed farther towards a; radical difference than was then p resented;’b u t might have, indeed returned again in its
descendants to the similitude of th e stock from which it sprung.
Hybridism among birds in a wild state is not infrequently the source from which many varieties arise, and oftentimes these are
designated as species, their origin not having either been detected, or at least acknowledged. But several causes intervene to prevent the
long continuance of these forms, one of which is the general infertility of such individuals; or, i f in any instance this should not be
tho case, then the inability to keep themselves separated from the allied species from which they derived their existence, would, in a
few generations; necessarily return these varieties to the likeness of one of the. sp ile s to which they owed their being. Their individual
peculiarities would be swallowed up by one or the other of the dominant races.