Excerpt from American Ornithology, or the Natural History of the Birds of the United States, Vol. 3: Illustrated With Plates Engraved From Drawings From Nature That there is a property in names as well as in things, will not be disputed; and there are few naturalists who would not feel as sensibly a fraud committed on their nomenclature as on their purse. The ardor with which the student pursues his researches, and the solicitude which he manifests in promulgating his discoveries under appropriate appella tions, are proofs that at least part of his gratification is derived from the supposed distinction which a name will confer upon him; deprive him of this distinction, and you inflict a wound upon his self-love, which will not readily be healed. To enter into a train of reasoning to prove that he who first describes and names a subject of natural history, agreeably to the laws of syste matic classification, is for ever entitled to his name, and that it cannot be superseded without injustice, would be useless, because they are pro positions which all naturalists deem self-evident. Then how comes it, whilst we are so tenacious of our own rights, we so often disregard those of others? 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.