. Key to North American birds. Containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary, inclusive of Greenland and lower California, with which are incorporated General ornithology, an outline of the structure and classification of birds, and Field ornithology, a manual of collecting, preparing, and preserving birds . AL PREFACE. remains,period— Were a modern Hesiod to essay — neither a cos-mogony nor a theogony — but the genesis of even theleast department of human knowledge, — were he toseek t
. Key to North American birds. Containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary, inclusive of Greenland and lower California, with which are incorporated General ornithology, an outline of the structure and classification of birds, and Field ornithology, a manual of collecting, preparing, and preserving birds . AL PREFACE. remains,period— Were a modern Hesiod to essay — neither a cos-mogony nor a theogony — but the genesis of even theleast department of human knowledge, — were he toseek the beginnings of American Ornithology, he wouldtiiid it only in Chaos. For from this sprang all things, great and small alike,to pass through Nightand Nemesis to thelight of days whichfirst see orderly pro-gress in the courseof natural evolution,when is first estab-lished some sequenceof events we recognizeas causes and there is system,and formal law ; therescience becomes possi-ble ; there its possiblehistory begins. Long was the timeduring which the birdsof our country wereknown to its inhab-itants, after the fash-ion of tlie people ofthose days, — knownas things of which usecould be made, andstudied, too, that usemight be made of this period is pre-historic ; no evidenceimage. There followed asliorter bv far than tlie one, tliougli it endures to-day —when the same. 5: t^ save in some quaint pictograph or rudely gra xu HISTORICAL PREFACE. birds awakened in other men an interest they could not excite in a savage breast, andthe sense of beauty was felt. Use and Beauty ! What may not spring from such divinelymated pair, when once they brood upon the human mind, like halcyons stilling troubledwaters, sinking the instincts of the animal in the restful, satisfying reflections of theman ] The history of American Ornithology begins at the time when men first wrote uponAmerican birds; for men write nothing without some reason, and to reason at
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirdsnorthamerica
