P R       E    F    A      C  E.              xix
Patrons, Friends, and others, who were the Pojleffors of thefe things,
that I might have no opportunity to impofe Falfbood on the W~orld, with-
out being contradited by living WYitnejfes.
I have made the Drawings of thef Birds direJly from Nature, and
have, for variety's fake, given them as many different Turns and Attitudes
as I could invent: this I chofe the rather to do, becaujfe I know great
Complaint hath been made, that a late Writer on Birds had given his
Birds no variety of Po/lure, but that they were direI Profles fianding
in thefame Pojition, which famenefsi is difagreeable.  I obferved a/Jo in
his
Trees, Stumps, and Grounds, a poornefis of Invention; therefore to amend
that Part in mine, I have taken the Counfel and Affifance of fome
Painters my particular Friends, in order to make the Work not only as
natural and agreeable as I could in the fubjeH Matter, but to decorate
the Birds with airy Grounds, having fome little Invention in them: The
better to Jet off the whole, I have in a few Plates, where the Birds were
very Jmall, added fome foreign Infeds to fill up the naked Spaces in the
Plates; thefe I efleemn no part of the propofed Work;  neverthelefs I
have been equally careful to be exaf in them both as to the Drawing and
Colouring. Great part of the Birds, defcribed in this Work, were living
when I drew them; others were in Cafes well preferved and dry, and
fome were kept in Spirits, which is the better way to preferve them, tho'
they cannot beJo well drawn in Spirits, by reafon the Forms of the Glafes
alter the apparent Shapes of the Birds; therefore I took Juich Birds out
of the Spirits.
In the following Defcriptions I had a fiew, particularly in 'ief ribig
the co/ours, to exprefs m/felf in Jich Terms as the Prints might be
tolerably colour'd for the future by any carious obfervi;2g Per yon from
the
Defcriptions only; for in that rejpef I have been as careful as I could,
always comparing the Colours I mention to Jomne well-knowny thing when 1
could do it; and where 1 could not, I have ufed compound Terms, fuch as
yellowif/h) Brown, red#J-J Brown, dirty Brown, and the like; and to other
Colours I have added faint, dark, middling, inclining to this, that, or
the other Colour: all which things are vqery neceffary in Natural Hifory
;
for the fimple Terms Red, Blue, rellow, J&c. /ignify a vai? Number of
diferent Coloulis.
I ]7all