XX • PREFACE. 



— ' Birdsnestiug, being a comxDlete description of the birds 

 wliicli breed in Great Britain and Ireland,' made its appearance. 

 Three years later, however, he was once more engaged on the old 

 favourite subject — the ' Ferns,' The price of his beautiful book 

 was necessarily comparatively high ; and many low-priced fern 

 books, by other writers or compilers, had made their appearance. 

 In order to compete with these, a fourth edition of ' British 

 Ferns' was published in 1864: it was of smaller size and 

 considerably lower xnice, and illustrated with steel-plates 

 instead of by woodcuts, as in the former editions. The Intro- 

 duction, as weU as that to the former editions, may be noticed 

 as among the most charming of Mr. Newman's writings. 



The 'Zoologist' had, since 1860, been growing more and 

 more bulky : double numbers were frequently resorted to, and 

 yet space could not be found for all the worthy communications 

 that were received. In order to cope with this emharras de 

 richesses, the 'Entomologist,' which had been merged in the 

 ' Zoologist' in 1843, resumed its separate existence in 1864. A 

 large part of the entomological communications at once went 

 over to it, and the difficulty was at once satisfactorily met. 

 From that time the 'Entomologist' has been steadily increasing 

 in public estimation ; and its cu'culation is, for a purely 

 entomological periodical, unprecedentedly large. 



Mr. Newman had long felt the want of a book of reference on 

 British birds. Montagu's ' Ornithological Dictionary ' was a most 

 valuable book, but it was half a century out of date ; it had long 

 been out of print, and was very scarce. The idea occurred that 

 what was a desideratum to himself must certainly be so to 

 others. The fourth edition of 'British Ferns' being now com- 

 pleted, and the ' Entomologist ' fairly launched, he at once 

 set to work. With the help of Selby's ' Illustrations of British 

 Ornithology' (1833), Yarrell's ' History of British Birds' (1856), 

 the ' Zoologist,' and the ' Field,' he laboriously brought the 

 work up to date, giving a reference to Yarrell's figure of the 

 bhd, and Hewitson's figure of the egg. The editorial additions 

 are naturally very great, and are separated from the original by 

 editorial brackets. The ' Dictionary of British Birds,' a demy 

 8vo, extending to 400 pages of small type closely printed, was 

 published in 1866. 



