PREFACE. 



In the following pages I have endeavoured to describe 

 truthfully the incidents of sundry journeys undertaken in 

 the last half-dozen years, more or less with a view to the 

 prosecution of my favourite study — Ornithology — which is 

 fast striding after its sister sciences in the public favour. 

 If I may presume to think that anything I have written 

 can in any degree help to render Ornithology more popular, 

 I shall be amply repaid for the labour and trouble which it 

 has cost me. 



I have added a statement, which may not be wholly 

 without interest, of the claims of certain rare species of 

 birds to be included in the British list. The present plan 

 of placing such stragglers on a level with our native 

 species is to be reprobated ; at the same time it is not easy 

 to know what to do with them. They clearly cannot be 

 passed over, for they are too important. The proper course 

 is to submit them to a close scrutiny, and insert such as 

 pass the ordeal in small type, or by indenting them, or 

 some other means make it plain that they are not to be on 

 the same footing with our indigenous species. 



