ii DICTIONARY OF BIRDS 



enquiries often made of me, to be greatly needed. Headers 

 who in most respects are certainly not ignorant of things in 

 general, frequently find in works of all sorts, but especially 

 in books of travel, mention of Birds by names which no 

 ordinary dictionary will explain ; and, on meeting with a 

 Caracara, a Koel or a Paauw, a Leatherheacl, a Mollymawk 

 or a Tom-fool, are at a loss to know what kind of bird is 

 intended by the author. On the other hand I have not 

 thought it necessary to include many names, compounded 

 (mostly of late years) by writers on ornithology, which have never 

 come nor are likely to come into common use — such as Crow- 

 Shrike, Crow -Titmouse, Shrike -Crow, Shrike- Titmouse, Thrush- 

 Titmouse, Titmouse-Thrush, Jay- Thrush and the like. Happily 

 these clumsy inventions are seldom found but in technical 

 works, where their meaning, if they have one that is definite, 

 is at once made evident. Their introduction into the present 

 volume would merely swell its bulk with little if any com- 

 pensating good. On this account I have also kept out a vast 

 number of local names even of British Birds, which could have 

 been easily inserted, though preserving most of those that 

 have found their way into some sort of literature, ranging 

 from an epic poem to an act of parliament ; but I confess to 

 much regret in being compelled to exclude them, because the 

 subject is one of great interest, and has never been properly 

 treated. It will thus be seen that my selection of names to 

 be inserted is quite arbitrary. I have tried to make it tend to 

 utility, and whether I have succeeded, those who consult the 

 volume will judge. 



Thanks to the complaisance of Messi's. Longman and 

 Company I have been able to acquire electrotypes of a con- 

 siderable number of the woodcuts which illustrated Swainson's 



