. American ornithology, or, The natural history of the birds of the United States [microform]. Wilson, Alexander, 1766-1813; Wilson, Alexander, 1766-1813; Birds; Oiseaux. 8 INTKODUCTION. years of application aro necessary to enable a person, wliatovor may bo his talents or diligence, to handle the graver with the facility and efl'ect of the pencil; while the time, thus consumed, might bo more advanta- geously employed in finishing drawings, and collecting facts for the de- scriptive parts, which is the proper province of the Ornithologist. Every person who is acquainted with the extremo accura
. American ornithology, or, The natural history of the birds of the United States [microform]. Wilson, Alexander, 1766-1813; Wilson, Alexander, 1766-1813; Birds; Oiseaux. 8 INTKODUCTION. years of application aro necessary to enable a person, wliatovor may bo his talents or diligence, to handle the graver with the facility and efl'ect of the pencil; while the time, thus consumed, might bo more advanta- geously employed in finishing drawings, and collecting facts for the de- scriptive parts, which is the proper province of the Ornithologist. Every person who is acquainted with the extremo accuracy of eminent engra- vers, must likewise be sensible of the advantage of having the imper- fections of the pencil corrected by the excellence of the graver. Every improvement of this kind the author has studiously availed himself of; and has frequently furnished the artist with the living or newly-killed fiubject itself to assist his ideas. In coloring the impressions, the same scrupulous attention has been paid to imitate the true tints of the original. The greatest number of the descriptions) particularly those of the nests, eggs, and plumage, have been written in the woods, with the subjects in view, leaving as little as possi- ble to the lapse of recollection : as to what relates to the manners, habits, &c., of the birds, the j)articu]ttrs on these heads are the result of personal observation, from memoranda taken on the spot; if they differ, as they will in many points, from former accounts, this at least can bo said in their behalf, that a single fact has not been advanced which the writer was not himself witness to, or received from those on whose judg- ment and veracity he believed reliance could be placed. When his own stock of observations hius been exhausted, and not till then, he has bad recourse to what others have said on the same subject, and all the most res|)oetable performances of a similar nature have been consulted, to whieii access could be obtained; no
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectois
