BIRDS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 



PART I. 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



The British Empire ! What a world of thought that 

 apparently simple expression is capable of evoking from 

 the " vasty deep " of the human imagination. An Empire 

 well-nigh co-extensive with the globe on which it is 

 situated, and on which, if the use of a hackneyed expres- 

 sion may be permitted in such a connection, the sun never 

 sets ; an Empire immensely vaster than either Alexander 

 orCfesar dreamt of in the wildest flights of their in.satiable 

 ambition ; an Empire containing every variety of the 

 human race, every species of animal, almost, that is known 

 to exist, every reptile, fish, and bird to be met with in the 

 universe. 



• Yes, every bird, or feathered fowl, from the gorgeous 

 inhabitants of the tropical forests of remote New Guinea, 

 so resplendent in the exuberant glories of many-tinted and 

 strangely developed plumes as to have been styled the 

 birds of paradise, down to the humble sparrow of our own 

 house-tops ; from the stately ostrich of Southern Africa to 

 the tiny golden-cvested wren of our verdant English woods, 

 or the minute humming-bird of the north-western slopes 



