INTRODUCTION 



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Although the present volume requires little in the 

 way of introducing it to an artistic and bird-loving 

 public, I have been invited to say a few words in 

 launching it upon what I hope will prove to be a 

 sustained and a successful career. The books on 

 British birds are legion ; and one feels that to this 

 fact is due the ever- increasing interest which our 

 feathered friends and neighbours excite. It may be 

 that many of these volumes savour too strongly of 

 the plagiarist, the amateur, and the sciolist, to be of 

 value (for every one must rush into print nowadays), 

 or to advance the study of ornithology in any way, 

 being merely tributes to the vanity of their authors, 

 and published as such ; yet, on the other hand, a 

 welcome number contain a vast mass of novel and 

 interesting material ; they are records, too, of personal 

 experience and observation, and therefore destined 

 to retain a more or less permanent position in the 

 literature of Birds. 



Just a century ago, British naturalists and the 

 British public were captivated by the first volume 



