VI PREFACE. 



of distribution may be found in the " Hand-List," in which 

 Mr. Witherby was. assisted by the Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain and 

 Drs. E. Hartert and N. F. Ticehurst. Much useful information 

 on habits is to be found in the " British Bird-Book," edited by 

 F. B. Kirkman, in the standard works of Dresser, Macgillivray, 

 Newton, Saunders, Seebohm, Sharpe and Yarrell, and in the 

 pages of the Zoologist and the magazine British Birds. As, 

 however, conflicting statements repeatedly appear in these 

 works, it is necessary for the student to make copious notes of 

 his observations and check the statements, whenever possible, 

 by personal experience. To all the living ornithologists quoted 

 and to the past masters of the study I am grateful. My main 

 sources of information, however, are my own experiences and 

 note-books, carefully kept and indexed for nearly forty years, 

 and constant close observation of British bird life. 



Plumages and measurements, whenever possible, have been 

 checked from actual specimens, using my own notes of birds 

 examined in the flesh rather than details supphcd in books or by 

 comparison with dried skins. In all cases I have compared my 

 notes with the fine Dresser collection of Pal^earctic birds in the 

 Manchester Museum. 



The colour and size of eggs vary considerably ; it has not been 

 possible to figure more than one type of each, and these show 

 the normal size. There is much diversity of opinion about the 

 period of incubation, and as I cannot check many of the state- 

 ments from personal experience I have decided to make no 

 reference to this point in most species. I am convinced that it 

 is more variable than is usually supposed. 



The black and white illustrations are from photographs by 

 Miss E. L. Turner on Plates 21, 51, 55, 62, 96, 121, 151 and 156; 

 by Mr. Richard Kearton on Plates 3, 8, 19, 24, 27, 30, 38, 48, 52, 

 56, 61, 68, 71, 74, 81, 88, 91, 93, 98, 103 (i), 106, 109, 126, 128, 

 139, and on the four end papers ; by Mr. T. Taylor on 5, 6, 10, 22^ 



