A Manual of British Ornithology, Vol. 1

Download or read book A Manual of British Ornithology, Vol. 1 written by William Macgillivray and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-10 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from A Manual of British Ornithology, Vol. 1: Being a Short Description of the Birds of Great Britain and Ireland, Including the Essential Characters of the Species, Genera, Families, and Orders; The Land Birds No branch of Natural History has been more cultivated than Ornithology. The great beauty and liveliness of Birds, the diversity exhibited in their actions and mode of life, their wonderful migrations, the variety of modulated sounds which they emit, the facility with which many of them may be domesticated, the degree in which they are subservient to our wants, and various other considerations, render them objects of attraction to persons of every age and condition in society. At no former period has this study been more zealously and successfully prosecuted than at the present day. A mere list of the names of individuals who have written on the Birds of Great Britain would occupy considerable space; and when there are among them so many who have in various degrees contributed to the advancement of knowledge, it might seem unfair or presumptuous to point out those whose merits are most conspicuous. But, as the most valuable works are too expensive to be available to students of every class, it has seemed to me that, to promote this favourite study, nothing is more wanted than a compendium of British Ornithology, a work sufficiently extended to contain descriptions full enough to enable the student to determine every species, and of so small a size as to be conveniently portable. 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.