REMARKS AND ADDITIONS. 



The rollowing Remarks are in answer to correspondents : — 



The scientific arrangement followed in this work is mainly in accordance 

 with that of 'The List of British Birds compiled by a Committee of tb-* 

 British Ornithologists' Union,' in which, again, the sequence is almost iden- 

 tical with that in Mr. Dresser's ' Birds of Europe.' Whatever may be the 

 differences of opinion respecting the relative position of some of the Families 

 in the Order Passeres, authorities in Europe and America are fairly agreed 

 that the highest Avian development is attained in that Order, which should, 

 therefore, occupy the first place in a descending arrangement or the last in 

 an ascending one. By following the scheme so sanctioned, we at least make 

 some approach to uniformity, and to this end I have, in the Passeres, sub- 

 ordinated my own views to those of the majority on unessential points. 



It should be remembered that this work is only a Manual, intended to 

 convey as much information as may be practicable in one voliane; but those 

 who require a greater amount of detail than is consistent with the plan 

 of limiting each species to 2 pp., must be referred to " Yarrell's History of 

 British Birds," 4th Edition. 



The characteristics of the Orders, Families and Genera will be given in 

 the Introduction. * 



Round brapke1;s. indicate that the describer of the species did not employ 

 the generic name now adopted. 



The length of a bird is measured from the base of the bill to the tip of 

 the tail. 



Desert Wheatear. — Since the article was printed, a bird, apparently a 

 young male, was shot near Arbroath on December 28th, 1887, and exhibited 

 at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London on March 6th, 1888, on 

 behalf of Lt.-Col. H. M. Drummond Hay, who published details in 'The 

 Ibis,' 1888, p. 283. 



Redstart. — I have lately received satisfactory evidence that this species 

 bred and reared its young at Powerscourt, co. Wicklow, in the summer of 

 1885; while several examples of this hitherto rare visitor to Ireland were 

 obtained in 1886. 



H. S. 



