NOTE iii 



' Classification of Birds.' These figures were drawn by that 

 admirable ornithological delineator, and most of them for truth 

 of detail or beauty of design have seldom been equalled and 

 rarely surpassed. I am also indebted to the kindness of Sir 

 Walter BuUer, K.C.M.Gr., F.R.S., for the use of electrotypes of 

 woodcuts executed for his ' Birds of New Zealand,' as well as 

 to the Publication Committee of the Zoological Society of 

 London, to the Trustees of the British Museum, and to Dr. 

 William Francis and Mr. Maxwell Masters, F.E.S., for their 

 consent to the reproduction of other figures, which will be 

 found duly acknowledged in the following pages. 



Lastly, I would say that the alphabetical order has been 

 deliberately adopted in preference to the taxonomic because I 

 entertain grave doubt of the validity of any systematic arrange- 

 ment as yet put forth, some of the later attempts being in my 

 opinion among the most fallacious, and a good deal worse than 

 those they are intended to supersede. That in a few directions 

 an approach to improvement has been made is not to be denied ; 

 but how far that approach goes is uncertain. I only see that 

 mistakes are easily made, and I have no wish to mislead others 

 •by an assertion of knowledge which I know no one to possess ; 

 yet with all these drawbacks and shortcomings I trust that this 

 Dictionary will aid a few who wish to study Ornithology in a 

 scientific spirit, as well as many who merely regard its pursuit 

 as a pastime, while I even dare indulge the hope that persons 

 indifferent to the pleasures of Natural History, except when 

 highly -coloured pictures are presented to them by popular 

 writers, may find in it some corrective to the erroneous impres- 

 sions commonly conveyed by sciolists posing as instructors. 



A. N. 

 Cambridge. March 1893 



