36 British Birds, their Eggs and Nests. 



Our plan, therefore, will be to omit all special 

 notice of the nests and eggs of so-called " British 

 Birds," whose only claim to the designation lies in 

 their having been met with once or twice, or even 

 some half-dozen times in the British Isles : to omit it, 

 that is, in the body of the book, and to give such 

 reference or description of at least the more interest- 

 ing species and their eggs, as space may allow, in an 

 Appendix. Accounts will be, however, given of the 

 habits of nidification and the eggs of all unquestion- 

 ably British birds, even although their breeding 

 habitat be in another country, or most rarely and 

 exceptionally within the compass of the British 

 seas ; such birds, for instance, as the Fieldfare, the 

 Redwing, the Snow Bunting, and others, besides 

 several of the Anatidcs. We begin, therefore, with 

 our first Order. 



ORDER.— ACCIPITRES. 



FAMILY I.— VULTURIDyS. 



Two members of this Family, classed by some 

 naturalists as belonging to the ssune gentis, by others 

 as species of two different genera, have been met with 

 in Britain ; but I believe one of them, the first-named 

 below, only once, the other only twice or three times. 

 They are only mentioned here as showing the justifi- 

 cation there is for claiming the family of Vidturidcs 

 as being in anywise exemplified in birds belonging to 

 the British Isles. • 



