xiv INTRODUCTION. 



is only now beginning to be felt. Darwin's great works, and the almost 

 equally great works of Wallace, fell upon the ornithological world during 

 an era of scholastic pedantry. Ornithologists were too busy species-making 

 or, if new species could not be found, in genera-making to take the lessons 

 of evolution to heart. Most of them accepted the doctrine in theory, but 

 never thought of applying it to the study of birds. The old notions of the 

 distinctions between species still prevailed, and the antiquated rules for the 

 diagnosis of genera still held sway. But whilst in these important 

 questions the most rigid conservatism barred all progress, a vent was found 

 for the revolutionary tendencies of the age in the most startling changes in 

 nomenclature : familiar names were changed and re-changed in obedience 

 to the law of priority — a Will o^ the Wisp which has led ornithology into a 

 quagmire of confusion ; whilst another fetish, binomial nomenclature, 

 proved to be equally an ignis fatuus, which so blinded the eyes of orni- 

 thologists that they could not see the intergradation of species, the most 

 important ornithological fact which has been discovered in the last quarter 

 of a century. 



But in spite of these untoward influences, much good work was 

 done. In 1859 ' The Ibis ' was commenced, a publication entirely devoted 

 to ornithology, a periodical which may fairly claim to be regarded as second 

 to none of its kind. Amongst the founders the names of Eyton, Gurney, 

 Newton, Salvin, Sclater, and Ti'istram will specially be connected with im- 

 portant bird-work of various kinds. For ten years ' The Ibis ' appears to 

 have absorbed the literary talent of British ornithologists, though the first 

 two volumes of Stevenson's 'Birds of Norfolk' (1866-70) deserve especial 

 mention as a model of a local fauna. Harting's ' Birds of Middlesex ' 

 (1866) appeared about the same time, and was followed by many other 

 works of a similar character by Gray, Cordeaux, Hancock, Saxby, &c. 

 Gould's ' Birds of Great Britain ' (1866-73) almost approaches in the ex- 

 quisite softness of its plates the delicacy of the living bird, and is specially 

 remarkable for the number of young figured, and one can only regret that 

 the letterpress should be so poor. White's ' Selborue ' maintained its 

 popularity during this period, and at least half a dozen important new 

 editions were published. 



The pretty woodcuts of Yarrell's ' British Birds ' were able to float a 

 second edition in 1845 and a third in 1856; and in 1871 the publisher 

 engaged Professor Newton to bring out a fourth edition, and for ten 

 years it slowly appeared at ever-increasing intervals without half having 

 been completed, when Van Voorst's patience was exhausted, and the 

 rest of the work was placed in the hands of Mr. Howard Saunders, by 

 whom it was promptly brought to a close in 1885. During the fourteen 

 years that this edition was in progress, so many discoveries were made, 

 especially in the geographical distribution of the species treated of^ and the 



