INTRODUCTION. 
Tost who are acquainted with the works of Bewick, 
Montagu, Jardine, Selby, Macgillivray, Yarrell, and Gould, 
without having made a special study of their contents, may 
well be excused for doubting whether a further publication 
on the subject of British Birds can be either desirable or 
necessary. 
Practical ornithologists, however, who may take up this 
Handbook will see in it an attempt to supply a want which, 
notwithstanding the admirable works above referred to, they 
must have frequently experienced*; for in two important 
respects, at least, do these fail to satisfy their requirements : 
they do not distinguish with sufficient clearness the species 
which are truly indigenous to Great Britain from those which 
are but rare and accidental visitants; nor do they indicate 
with sufficient authority the scientific nomenclature which 
should be adopted for the species of which they take cog- 
nizance. 
Without attention to the first of these points, it is impos- 
sible to form any thing like a correct estimate of the character 
of the British avifauna; while to neglect the second is to 
perpetuate error, and to render perplexing that which should 
always be simple and intelligible. 
* Cf. Alston, ‘ Zoologist,’ 1866, p. 452. 
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