Excerpt from Ornithological Biography: Or an Account of the Habits of the Birds of the United States of America; Accompanied by Descriptions of the Objects Represented in the Work Entitled the Birds of America, and Interspersed With Delineations of American Scenery and Manners Kind reader, - Should you derive from the perusal of the following pages, which I have written with no other wish than that of procuring one favourable thought from you, a portion of the pleasure which I have felt in collecting the materials for their composition, my grati fication will be ample, and the compensation for all my labours will be more than, perhaps, I have a right to ex pect from an individual to whom I am as yet unknown, and to whomi must, therefore, in the very outset, present some account of my life, and of the motives which have influenced me in thus bringing him into contact with an American Woodsman. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.