my Illustrations, nor in writing the book now in your hand, although
fully competent for both tasks, but in completing the
scientific details, and smoothing down the asperities of my
Ornithological Biographies.
I do not present to you the objects of which my work consists
in the order adopted by systematic writers. Indeed, I can
•scarcely believe that yourself, good-natured reader, could wish
that I should do so ; for although you and I, and all the world besides,
are well aware that a grand connected chain does exist in
the Creator's sublime system, the subjects of it have been left at
liberty to disperse in quest of the food best adapted for them,
or the comforts that have been so abundantly scattered for each
of them over the globe, and are not in the habit of following
each other, as if marching in regular procession to a funeral or
a merry-making. He who would write a general ornithology
of the world, and is possessed of knowledge adequate to such a
task, is the only one by whom the ordination of birds could be
made truly useful. When this work is completed, and when
the results of my observations have been duly weighed and arranged,
I shall reduce the whole to an order corresponding with
the improvements recently made in ornithological science, and
present to you a Synopsis of the Birds of the United States,
including the ordinal, generic and specific characters, with the
distinctive habits of each species, and references to the descriptions
of other writers.
I shall therefore simply offer you the results of my own observation
with respect to each of the species, in the order in
which I have published the representations of them. Nor do I
intend to annoy you with long descriptions, including the number
and shape of the feathers, particularly in cases where the
new to me, yet I have never known the desire above alluded to.
This feeling I still cherish; and in spite of the many injunctions
which I have received from naturalists far more eminent
than I can ever expect to be, I have kept, and still keep,
unknown to others, the species, which, not finding portrayed
in any published work, I look upon as new, having only given
in my Illustrations a number of them proportionate to the
drawings of already known species that have been engraved.
Attached to the descriptions of these, you will find the place
and date of their discovery. I do not, however, intend to claim
any merit for these discoveries, and should have liked as well
that the objects of them had been previously known, as this
would have saved some unbelievers the trouble of searching for
them in books, and the disappointment of finding them actually
new. I assure you, good reader, that, even at this moment, I
should have less pleasure in presenting to the scientific world
a new bird, the knowledge of whose habits I do not possess,
than in describing the peculiarities of one long since discovered.
There are persons whose desire of obtaining celebrity induces
them to suppress the knowledge of the assistance which
they have received in the composition of their works. In many
cases, in fact, the real author of the drawings or the descriptions
in books on Natural History is not so much as mentioned,
while the pretended author assumes to himself all the merit
which the world is willing to allow him. This want of candour
I never could endure. On the contrary, I feel pleasure
in here acknowledging the assistance which I have received from
a friend, Mr WILLIAM MACGILLIVRAY, who being possessed
of a liberal education and a strong taste for the study of the
Natural Sciences, has aided me, not in drawing the figures of