INTRODUCTION xxiii 



roseus, Upupa epops, Coracias garrula, Merops 

 apiaster, Recurvirostra avocetta, Ciconia alba, 

 Grus cinerea, CEdemia fusca, Sterna dougallii, and 

 Larus minutiis. 



The Rare and Accidental Visitants form a 

 large proportion of the total number of species in the 

 British list, comprising 167 out of 429, or nearly 

 one-third of the whole. But of these at least 

 one-fourth (distinguished by an asterisk in the 

 "Summary," pp. 495-508) may be regarded as 

 having no proper title to be styled " visitants " 

 in the sense of " continuing to visit." For many 

 of them have not been noticed oftener than once 

 or twice, while others have been evidently escaped 

 cage-birds, or foreign specimens palmed off as 

 "British" by unscrupulous dealers. Such birds as 

 Crowned Cranes, Flamingoes, Spur-winged Geese, 

 Carolina Teal, Purple Gallinules, and other " mena- 

 gerie birds " found wandering at large have obviously 

 no place in the British Ornis, while Albatrosses, 

 Sheathbills, Cape Pigeons, and dead Petrels washed 

 ashore after long immersion may well be relegated 

 to an independent category of ocean waifs and 

 strays. 



It is extremely difficult to believe that the non- 

 aquatic visitors, which are natives of America, have 

 actually journeyed across the Atlantic, and performed 

 a voyage of at least 1700 nautical miles on the 

 shortest route, vid Newfoundland ; but that many 

 of them have actually done so seems proved by 



