PREFACE. 



' I 'HIS little work will, I trust, be found useful as a Sketch-book of the Birds of 

 Great Britain. Its limits have not allowed of my attemptin>; a full history 

 ot the species, and I have but added a few notes as a running commentary on the 

 little pictures which Messrs. A. F. and C. L^-don have provided. 



The Systematic Index is, I belie\'e, the most complete record of the birds in the 

 'British List' yet published. It contains the two latest additions to the British 

 Avifauna, Herbivocula schwarzi and Mii>iia atricapilla, and brings the total number 

 of species to 445. 



R. BOWDLER SHARPE 

 Chiswick, 



October ^,151. 1898. 



