The Natural History of Cage Birds, which I now lay before the public, is a work I have long been solicited to write. There are many people who like to keep birds, who neither know their habits nor the proper treatment or food requisite for them. Even those who are not altogether ignorant of these, often have but very limited, superficial, and, what is worse, sometimes erroneous ideas on the subject. It is for such readers I have given the following Introduction; for professed naturalists will find nothing there but what they have already learnt, either from my own works or from those of other authors on natural history. If long experience and minute observation on the subject of his work is calculated to gain an author credit, I flatter myself that this will not be denied me, since from my earliest youth I have delighted in being surrounded with birds, and am so accustomed to them that I cannot write at my desk with pleasure, or even with attention, unless animated by the warbling of the pleasing little creatures which enliven my room. My passion is carried so far, that I always have about thirty birds around me, and this has naturally led me to consider the best and easiest mode of procuring them, as well as of feeding and preserving them in health. Few amateurs, therefore, are better fitted than myself to write on this subject; and I hope I have done it to the satisfaction of the public. I ought also to notice in this place the plan of my work, as my book may fall into the hands both of those who might feel a wish to learn more particulars, and of those who may think much less would have sufficed. I have described all the indigenous European birds with which I am acquainted that are capable of being tamed, and are pleasing in the house. As to foreign ones, I have only spoken of those I have occasionally seen in Germany, and which can be procured without much difficulty. I have followed the same plan in their natural history which I have pursued in my other works on birds
The Natural History of Cage Birds, which I now lay before the public, is a work I have long been solicited to write. There are many people who like to keep birds, who neither know their habits nor the proper treatment or food requisite for them. Even those who are not altogether ignorant of these, often have but very limited, superficial, and, what is worse, sometimes erroneous ideas on the subject. It is for such readers I have given the following Introduction; for professed naturalists will find nothing there but what they have already learnt, either from my own works or from those of other authors on natural history. If long experience and minute observation on the subject of his work is calculated to gain an author credit, I flatter myself that this will not be denied me, since from my earliest youth I have delighted in being surrounded with birds, and am so accustomed to them that I cannot write at my desk with pleasure, or even with attention, unless animated by the warbling of the pleasing little creatures which enliven my room. My passion is carried so far, that I always have about thirty birds around me, and this has naturally led me to consider the best and easiest mode of procuring them, as well as of feeding and preserving them in health. Few amateurs, therefore, are better fitted than myself to write on this subject; and I hope I have done it to the satisfaction of the public. I ought also to notice in this place the plan of my work, as my book may fall into the hands both of those who might feel a wish to learn more particulars, and of those who may think much less would have sufficed. I have described all the indigenous European birds with which I am acquainted that are capable of being tamed, and are pleasing in the house. As to foreign ones, I have only spoken of those I have occasionally seen in Germany, and which can be procured without much difficulty. I have followed the same plan in their natural history which I have pursued in my other works on birds