The few introductory pages include a rapid sketch of the methods of
classifying Birds adopted by some of the most distinguished
naturalists, in which their characteristics are stripped of the jargon
of technicality and _hard words_: thus, "Diurnal" birds are explained
as "preying in the day-time;" "Piscivorous, feeding upon fish;"
"Passeres, or Sparrows;" "Columbæ, or Pigeons," &c. An outline of Mr.
Vigors's Quinary System, is also given, and the reader referred to
proper sources for illustrations. The Editor then, leaving the beaten
path of his predecessors, rambles through "fields and forests,
unfettered by system, but alive to whatever he meets with likely to
interest for its curiosity or its novelty." The birds are classed
according to their peculiar labours: thus, there are Mining Birds,
Ground Builders, Mason and Carpenter Birds, Platform Builders,
Basket-making Birds, Weaver Birds, Tailor Birds, Felt-making Birds,
Cementers, Dome-builders, and Parasite Birds. Each division is so
abundantly attractive to the observer of Nature in field or folio,
that we scarcely know how to decide on an extract; and the reader will
readily admit this dilemma, if he but recollects the early enthusiasm,
wonder, and delight, with which he must have regarded a _Bird's Nest_,
unless he has been pent up all his life in the brick and mortar and
chimney groves of a metropolis. Even then, the ingenuity of rooks may
have occurred to him as not a whit less wonderful than the proud
glories of art with which he has been environed. It is, however, time
to determine, and we, accordingly, choose the following:--


_The Osprey._

It would appear that the Americans are very fond of these birds, from
some prevalent superstition connected with them. "It has been