PREFACE. 



It was not without some misgivings that we ventured 

 to launch the first volume of British Birds, but the 

 hearty support and kindly encouragement which we have 

 received during the year have justified our conviction that 

 there was an undoubted gap in the literature of British 

 Ornithology, and that a Magazine entirely devoted to the 

 study of British birds was required. 



Our programme for the year has been successfully 

 carried out, save only that we have been unable to com- 

 plete the series of articles on " Additions to our Know- 

 ledge of British Birds since 1899," and this must be 

 continued in our next volume. 



The Wood-Pigeon enquiry, the results of which must 

 also be published in Volume II., has met with an en- 

 couraging response ; and we hope it will be but the first 

 of many such enquiries to be carried out upon a systematic 

 basis by the readers of British Birds. The importance 

 of such co-operation cannot be exaggerated, and it is in 

 the hands of the readers of this Magazine to add 

 materially to our knowledge of the birds of this country 

 by making observations contemporaneously on a common 

 basis. 



In thanking the host of contributors who, by giving 

 ungrudgingly of their best, have done so much to ensure 



