OR THE

NATURAL HISTORY

OF

THE BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES.

BY ALEXANDER WILSON,

AND CHARLES LUCIAN BONAPARTE.

EDITED BY

ROBERT JAMESON, Esq. F.R.S.E. & L. F.L.S. M.W.S.

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY

OF EDINBURGH, &c.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED FOR CONSTABLE AND CO. EDINBURGH; AND HURST, CHANCE, AND CO. LONDON.

EDINBURGH:

Printed by ANDREW SHORTREED, Thistle Lane.

NOTICE.

'ON presenting to the English reader, through the medium of a popular periodical, the first European edition of a work of which America has just cause to be proud, the publishers have a few words of explanation to offer regarding the improvements they have adopted.

It will be seen, from the Memoir of Wilson in the present volume, that his portion of the American Ornithology consists of nine volumes quarto, the descriptive part of the concluding volume having been drawn up by Mr George Ord, of Philadelphia. In 1825, Mr Ord was again employed to prepare new editions of the seventh, eighth, and ninth volumes, and made considerable additions: in 1828, three supplementary volumes, by Charles Lucian Bonaparte,* appeared.

The present edition will comprise not merely the whole of Wilson's work, including the improve

* Prince of Musignano, son of Lucien Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon.