Cassell's Book of Birds (Complete‪)‬

We were some time ago both delighted and astonished by the performances of a German artist, who imitated with wonderful exactness the notes of a variety of birds. The song of the nightingale and the warblings of the skylark, the whistling of the throstle and the out-poured melody of the canary, were gone through with such perfect execution, that the birds themselves, we thought, could scarcely have detected a flaw in the performance. This gifted individual introduced himself to his audience by a somewhat humorous account of the manner in which he had acquired his extraordinary powers. He told us that his father, who was a breeder of birds, had upon one occasion gone from home, leaving a bag of rice as provision for his children, and a quantity of bird-seed for his feathered protégés. By some mistake the rice had been given to the birds, and the bird-seed to the children, the consequence being, that on the gentleman's return he found his birds all dead, and his children singing like piping bullfinches. How far this explanation was satisfactory we will not stop to inquire; but we have sometimes been almost tempted to suppose that some similar accident must be of frequent occurrence in Germany. The deep acquaintance of the ornithologists of that country with the objects of their study, and the fidelity with which they note down the minutest incidents connected with the history of their favourites, surpassing anything achieved by other naturalists, not even excepting such enthusiastic labourers as Wilson and Audubon, demands our warmest praise; while the patient industry, so conspicuous in their writings, at once calls for and excites our admiration.

Among the foremost of his countrymen in the cultivation of ornithological research stands the author of the magnificent work whose pages it is our wish to lay before English readers. Not content with studying the natural history of his favourites from books, or even in the rich scientifically arranged collections contained in so many Continental museums, his zeal led him to follow them even into their own wild retreats, and, gun in hand, to penetrate the burning deserts of Eastern Africa, and the equally inhospitable, and then but little known, regions of Abyssinia. By thus familiarising himself with the habits of birds in their native haunts, and amid the scenery whereby they are surrounded in a state of nature, he has been enabled to impart a freshness to his descriptions as characteristic of the real naturalist as the smell of new-made hay is redolent of fields and hedgerows, and no more to be imitated by the mere compiler than the voice of an orator by the reporter of his speeches.

Before, however, we permit our author to speak for himself, it may perhaps be desirable to preface his remarks by a few general observations concerning the structure of the beautiful creatures that form the subjects of his teaching, inasmuch as it is obviously desirable to have clear notions concerning the machinery employed before its adaptation to its intended uses can be made manifest; and further, because in the study of ornithology, as in every other branch of natural history, there are certain conventional terms that may require explanation before the words used in describing an object are intelligible to the uninitiated.

The Bird is an inhabitant of the air in the fullest sense of the expression. The atmosphere is emphatically the sphere of its activity; it mounts it as it would a ladder; it sails through it in triumph, and rides upon the winds as upon a fleet steed. Moreover, it is the atmosphere itself which endows the feathered Ariel with such capabilities, and it is in the perfection of his respiration that we must search for an explanation of his wonderful achievements.