INTRODUCTION.

ORNITHOLOGY is the science which has for its object the investigation of the habits, affinities, and nature of birds. This pursuit, at first sight so trivial, will, if properly followed, be productive of many and important advantages. To enumerate and explain these in all their ramifications would require volumes, and even then, were the task performed by the most enlarged and comprehensive mind our earth has ever produced, it would still be imperfect, inasmuch as the Being who created the objects of our investigation, is infinite—and the investigators, are finite. On the present occasion, however, we can devote only a few sentences to the subject, in which we shall touch on two or three of the most obvious inducements to the study.

What a vivid charm those airy, ethereal winged sprites, the feathered songsters, infuse into a country life! When Spring has gilded the meadows with the golden kingcups, and enamelled the prairies with the bright-eyed daisy, or when May, the

Month of bees, and month of flowers,
Month of blossom-laden bowers,

forces you to leave your winter in-door pursuits, and quaff the sparkling and invigorating cup presented by Nature's own hand-when she fans you with her blandest gales, cheers you with her brightest beams, and enchants you with her loveliest scenes—what life, what breadth, what finish do the feathered race give to the whole! How charming to see the SWALLOW Sweep past you with a speed that mocks the wind and outstrips the hurricane-now sailing in the blue expanse, now dashing past you, and leaving you in doubt whether 'twas a bird or a spirit that thus disturbed your meditations, and anon gliding over the glittering pool whose bright surface is darkened only where that aged hawthorn grows in peaceful luxuriance by the brink. On advancing towards yon beechen copse, the voice of nature's flute, the Cuckoo gray," salutes you with his eversame Cu-coo, Cu-coo-which, mellowed by the distance, falls on the ear with music-like sweetness. Not a field, not a streamlet, not a bush but its interest is a thousand-fold increased by the LARK, the WAGTAIL, or the WARBLER. Then amid their verdant halls, erected by "Nature, the wisest architect," how exquisitely beautiful 'tis to listen to the woodland minstrels pouring forth their rapturous songs, and swelling the gale with their "liquid utterance." All nature is so beautiful and the whole earth is so admirably tuned-every scene and every object is so beautifully adapted to the others with which it is related-each so greatly enhances the charms of

the rest, that the mind overflows with gladness, delight, and gratitude, and we involuntarily exclaim

O! thou merry month complete,
MAY, thy very name is sweet!

The beauty of every season in turn is enhanced, in like manner, by the airy songsters. When

To mute and to material things

New life revolving SUMMER brings,

'tis pleasant to visit "the winding vales and woody dells," where no sound less soothing than the cooing of the RING PIGEON or the rich warble of the YELLOW BILL falls on the ear of the weary wanderer, reposing in" leafy luxury" beneath "the old patrician trees so great and good," or under

The hawthorn's pleasant boughs,
Where a thousand blithe birds house.

Then again, if we wander abroad when

The Summer flowers are fading,
And AUTUMN winds arouse ;

when it may truly be said,

The sun like a glorious banner unfurled,
Seems to wave o'er a new, more magnificent world,

when the trees are decked in their gorgeous tapestry, and the landscape assumes a golden hue, how greatly are the strolls of the naturalist enlivened by

The REDBREAST's soft, autumnal song;

or when we

-hear the THRUSH a farewell lay
Pour out as sinks to rest the day.
While from the stubble, sudden spring
The PARTRIDGES on sounding wing;
And, LARKS high soaring in the air,
Proclaim their pleasure still is there.

And even when stern WINTER reigns supreme accompanied with all his ensigns of power, "which he most regally doth wear,"-when he has clad the earth in a crystal robe, and crowned the trees with a garniture of rime,

The REDBREAST swells,

In the slow fading wood, his little throat,

and charms us by his winning manners and confiding disposition. The WREN, the KINGLET, and the DUNNOC also enliven the uniformity of this bleak season, and, when the sunlight brightens the landscape into sparkling radiance, they carol forth their sweetest notes with all the beauty of their summer ditties!

Nor is it only in every season that

The Warblers here will charm your sense
With Nature's wildest eloquence;

Should you wander forth "to meditate at eventide," you will be thrilled to your very inmost soul by the rich gust of melody poured forth by the silver-throated NIGHTINGALE, serenading the fair empress of night now gliding in serene majesty amid masses of snowy clouds, while she lights up this nether world with her cold liquid beams.

The Cucoo too, and the REEDLING, lend their aid to heighten the charms of the moon-lit scene, and the OUZEL, the THRUSH, and the REDBREAST, send forth their wood-notes wild during the greater part of the night.

Scarce has the sun purpled o'er the eastern horizon and thus given notice of his approach, than

the SKY LARK warbles high

His trembling, thrilling exstacy;

And, lessening from the dazzled sight
Melts into air and liquid light.

The Wren too,

Sweet warbler of the circling year,
Of Summer bright and Winter drear,

may be heard ere the first "shrill clarion" of the