52 



ON THE MORE IMPORTANT ADDITIONS TO OUR 

 KNOWLEDGE OF BRITISH BIRDS SINCE 1899. 



BY 



H. F. WITHERBY and N. F. TICEHURST. 



In the first number of this Magazine Mr. Howard 

 Saunders gave the history of those birds which have been 

 added to the British List since the publication in 1899 of 

 his well-known " Illustrated Manual of British Birds." 



Li the present contribution we propose to deal with the 

 fiu-ther occurrences, since that date, of those species which 

 are reckoned among our rarer visitants, and also to detail 

 certain other important facts which have been added to 

 the knowledge of our native avifauna during this same 

 period. More especially we shall refer to the all-important 

 question of the extension or restriction of range. 



We have omitted all mention of the descriptions of sub- 

 species, because Dr. Ernst Hartert has promised to con- 

 tribute to this magazine an article dealing with this 

 subject. Those records which affect the distribution of 

 our birds outside this country have likewise been omitted 

 as being outside the scope of a Magazine article. 



During these eight years much valuable work has been 

 done by Messrs. W. Eagle Clarke and J. A. Harvie-Brown, 

 and others under their direction, to add to the knowledge 

 of the birds of Scotland ; while equally remarkable have 

 been the numerous occurrences recorded from the south- 

 east of England of birds which rarely visit this country. 



Most of the rarer visitors have been exhibited at 

 meetings of the British Ornithologists' Club, and have 

 been duly recorded in the Bulletin of the club. 



Amongst the works which have been j)ublished the 

 following, as adding to our knowledge of the subject, may 

 be mentioned : — "The Birds of Ireland," by R. J. Ussher 

 and R. Warren ; " The Birds of Surrey," by J. A. Bucknill ; 



