INTRODUCTION. ix 



13. * Herodiones — e.g. Herons, Storks, and Ibises. 



14. * Steganopodes — Pelicans, Cormorants, and Gannets. 



15. * Accipitres — e.g. Eagles, Hawks, and Vultures. 



16. * Striges — Owls. 



17. * Picarias — e.g. Goat-Suckers, Cuckoos, Rollers, 



Kingfishers, Woodpeckers, Humming-birds, and 

 Swifts. 



18. Psittaci — Parrots. 



19. * Passeres — e.g. Thrushes, Finches, Swallows, Crows, 



and Larks. 



An asterisk has been placed opposite the Orders with 

 British representatives, and the striking fact is at once 

 evident that only the Penguins, Tinamous, and Parrots are 

 unrepresented. It may go without saying, however, that 

 many important families of birds are not known in Britain, 

 such as Pelicans, Hornbills, and Humming-birds. 



Study of Structure. 



It is the study of the living biixl that attracts 

 most minds, and there is certainly enough in this to keep 

 a man busy all his life ; but half of the wonder will be 

 missed if there is not also some analysis of structure. 

 Some of the foundation-stones of scientific ornithology 

 were laid by William Macgillivray, and he was never 

 tired of insisting that field-work and laboratoiy-work 

 should go hand in hand. Every ornithologist of distinc- 

 tion would say the same. A beginning, at least, is not 

 a great deal to ask — to utilise the dead birds thrown up 

 with the other jetsam of the seashore ; to see something 

 of the lie of the parts in the body — heavy organs below 

 and light above ; to learn something about the highly 

 developed muscular system, for instance ; to work into the 

 details of the skeleton, so delicately built on the hollow- 



h 



