cution, and would require many sheets to adduce the numerous proofs necessary to its establishment, I shall content myself with referring the physiological reader to the anatomy and physiology of the brain of Doctors Gall and Spurzheim, which I have embraced; and which will be explained in a work, which is, I understand, about to be published.

This system may perhaps at first appear astonishing to people, from the inefficacy of the terms now employed to express the different faculties of the mind; but a patient investigation will, I do not doubt, convince scientific and intelligent inquirers of its truth. The theory considers the brain and nervous system, not as one simple organ of thought and life; but as an assemblage of different organs which are the material conditions of different faculties of the mind. The simple and conjoint action of these different organs constitute the sources of the propensities and intellect of both men and animals. These suppositions do not involve any necessarian doctrines, nor abrogate from the free will or moral liberty of the individual; they cannot therefore be made use of by the advocates of the doctrine of philosophical necessity to support their particular opinions. The reader will, I hope, see this clearly as he advances in the subject, and I only wish to excite him to such a patient investigation of the anatomy and physiology of the brain, as has already convinced me of the truth of the theory.

PREFACE.

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NATURAL HISTORY and the Sciences were not originally pur sued by Philosophers from a curiosity to acquire, or a desire to disseminate, the secret laws of the universe. Man is, nevertheless, an inquisitive animal, and seems, by his nature, to possess a restless solicitude about the objects with which he is surrounded, native desire of increasing his knowledge of things. Who can reflect on the extent of his memory, and of his imagination, and of his power of communicating thought, and not suppose man constructed to enhance, by systematic inquiry, that knowledge, which, to a certain degree, must be the necessary result of sensation? And who can contemplate the variety observable in the intellectual characters of individuals, arising from a difference in the relative strength of the several organs of the brain, and not suppose that human pursuits would be dissimilar, and that original varieties of genius as well as accidental circumstances of situation, would direct human efforts to the acquisition of various species of knowledge? But we cannot suppose that the different sciences had their beginning when society was organized as it is at present; when from the social division of labor, and the state of civilization, there are many to whom the conveniences of life are measured without toil, and who can follow their inclination in the pursuit of knowledge; and when it becomes the lot of others to exercise their minds only for a means of subsis

tence; for the arts and sciences seem, in a measure, necessary to social improvement, and appear to have arisen, from time to time, out of the wants of individuals, and to have kept pace with civilization.

In the infancy of society, it is probable that men, then only the wild inhabitants of forests and woods, employed their ken to discover and procure the various subjects of their immediate wants; and natural history was confined to a knowledge of such animals as were fit for food, and to be procured by hunting and fishing; and such as were formidable, and to be known, that they might be avoided; and to whose superior strength human ingenuity and contrivance were to be opposed. But even in a more cultivated state of society, among the eastern nations of shepherds who lived wandering through verdant pastures with their flocks, to dwell wherever fountains poured out water, or trees afforded shade, science was still only subservient to the exigencies of nature, and natural history cultivated to discover and commemorate the useful qualities of animals. Some were edible, as sheep, goats, and many horned cattle. Others useful for guards, as the dog, who protected the folds; or the ichneumon and cat, the destroyers of rats and mice; whose troublesome insults engaged men in the pursuit of a more perfect acquaintance with their habits, together with numerous other tribes of noisome animals and insects, who invaded the dwellings of man, and interrupted his enjoyment. Many animals were monitors, who, by their appearance, announced the impending change of seasons. Thus the unexpected alterations of the weather were predicted by many birds and insects: and the garrulity of the crow and the thrush; the coming forth of worms upon the ground, and of spiders on the walls; the clamorous squalling of peacocks, and the frequent immersions of water fowl; indicated rain, and warned the shepherd and agriculturist to prepare for bad weather. Nor were the periodical returns of the seasons less marked by many birds. Such was the crane flying the wintry tempests to gain more tranquil regions. Such was the turtle and the stork, the cuckoo and the nightingale; and the swallow, who returning was invariably found the harbinger of spring; and who, by an association of ideas, by which most human affections are regulated, when bestowed on trifling objects, was protected from injury, and received a supersti

tious respect, as being the companion of summer, the precursor of reviving nature.

The Botany of the early ages was alike restricted within the bounds of convenience, with appetite: officinal herbs were cultivated, and the best fruits selected for repast. No traces are left of the cultivation even of beautiful flowers among the ancients, unless eatable, or otherwise useful. The fields of the Senex Corycius procured him the riches aud home-earned security so praised by the Mantuan poet. There is little love of beauty discoverable in the accounts left of the gardens of Alcinous: nor is botanical science to be found in the knowledge of Solomon, who knew every herb, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop which groweth on the wall.

It was probably long afterwards, when society was more advanced that many felt that leisure which is caused by the distribution of labor, and that the minds of men, ever restless and desirous of knowledge, engaged in the pursuit of natural history for its own sake. Aristotle, Ælian, Theophrastus, and Pliny, lived in a comparatively advanced state of civilization. Such men first drew forth natural history from the rude bed of rural economy, and brought it into the area of dawning science, cultivated only in detached parts, according as necessity had engaged attention to certain animated beings. Just as a curious boy takes out a half-ripe horse chesnut from its rough pod, pyeballed and ripened only in particular places, to be matured in time into its beautiful uniformity of color, by the light atmosphere into which it is brought.

It is hoped that in time, by the modern arrangements and divisions of natural history, and the number of co-operators engaged in each department, it may ultimately acquire the beauty of a perfect system.

The following pages relate to a small branch of the said science, and contain some evidence on the question, whether or no the genus hirundo is migratory.

At first sight birds engage our attention. In the beautiful tints of their plumage, they exhibit a greater diversity of lively colors than most other tribes of animals. We are pleased with the different melodies of their songs. In their manners and habits they show a diversity of character correspondent to their numerous dissimilar

figures; and they are perpetually before our eyes while in pursuit of their food.

The pleasure arising from the study of natural history has its source in the endless variety of forms exhibited by living beings, and in the energies of our minds exerted when we are engaged in discovering the purposes to which each is adapted. Birds are particularly calculated to afford this pleasure, from possessing in a great degree that variety. And conformably we find they have most engaged the attention of mankind in past ages, before subsequent researches had developed the great sagacity of insects, and had facilitated the knowledge of them, and rendered them interesting by systematic arrangements, and a delineation of their generic and specific characters.'

Of the different habits of birds which naturalists have employed themselves to investigate, their local habitation or places of residence have been always a principal subject of their studies. Some remain all the year round in one part of the world, as the sparrow, the rook, the magpie, the owl, and most rapacious birds. Others change their habitations in the same country, in quest of food, and shift their quarters without travelling to any great distance: as the wagtail and the redbreast; and the wild geese and ducks, which come to the southward parts of our island at the approach of winOther birds cross the seas, and migrate to far distant countries, as the soland goose, the gannet, the blackcap, the cuckoo, and various other kinds of land and water fowl. To these latter kinds the name of migratory has generally been applied.*

ter.

British migratory birds may be divided into those which inhabit our island in the winter time, as fieldfares, woodcocks, and many sea birds; and those which coming in spring spend the summer with us, as the cuckoo, the wryneck, and the redstart: whether the few species of swallow which visit us in spring, and retire in autumn, are of this sort, or whether they are of a nature quite different, and become torpid during winter, is the question discussed in

' I allude particularly to the interesting accounts of Hüber on Bees, and on Ants.

2 Some birds which are stationary in one country, as the kite for instance, migrate in another, as the same bird in Egypt.