INTRODUCTION. xiii 



and others; but the attractions of the woodcuts have been sufficient to 

 carry the work through several editions. Morris's ' History of Britisli 

 Birds ' owed its success to its coloured plates : it contains abundant 

 internal evidence that its compiler Avas much less acquainted ^vith '^ field- 

 ornithology '' than was even Yarrell ; and the second edition^ published in 

 1870, shows that the writer was either ignorant of the contemporary 

 literature in which the important discoveries of Wolley and others were 

 recorded, or did not choose to incur the expense of setting up fresh type to 

 incorporate them in his later editions. Nevertheless it would be unjust to 

 refuse to the original publication the merit of being a useful compilation. 

 Jenyns (1835), Meyer (1835-13), and Jardine (1838-43) each contributed 

 works j)urporting to be complete histories of British birds, and to the last- 

 mentioned author must be accorded the merit of considerable originality. 

 But by far the most original work on British birds which has yet appeared 

 was that written by Macgillivray (1837-5.2). This work is deficient in 

 many respects ; as a compilation it must be regarded as a failure^ but where 

 the wiiter speaks of the habits of birds which have come under his own 

 observation he is unrivalled. Macgillivray is the Naumann of British 

 ornithologists, and his book will be regarded as a classic when his contem- 

 poraries are forgotten. 



Knox^s 'Ornithological Rambles in Sussex' (1849) and Thompson's 

 ' Birds of Ireland ' (1849-51) deserve a passing mention, nor must the 

 numerous minor notices relating to ornithology which appeared in the 

 magazines of the day be altogether forgotten, especially as in 1843 the 

 ' Zoologist ' was commenced for the reception of many of them. Of all 

 the contributors of this kind perhaps Waterton and Blyth were the most 

 remarkable ; and although the subsequent labour of the latter writer was 

 chiefly devoted to Indian ornithology, his name will always live in the 

 memory of British ornithologists as the writer of the one edition of White's 

 'Selborne ' in which the footnotes are equal, if not superior, to the text. 



But in spite of all these great names, the greatest has yet to be men- 

 tioned. In 1856 the third edition of Hewitson's ' Eggs ' was published, 

 with new and somcAvhat improved plates, and with extracts from the letters 

 and journals of John Wolley, wdiose discoveries of the habits, especially the 

 breeding-habits, of birds which migrate in the spring to the Arctic regions 

 have been so often enthusiastically spoken of in every volume of my book, 

 that further praise of the love which prompted the enterprise, or the 

 pluck which carried it to a successful issue, is superfluous. 



1861-1885. If it was necessary to give names to the various periods into 

 which the history of ornithology in this country may be conveniently 

 divided, perhaps the last quarter of a century might be called the Darwinian 

 era ; but it would be a misnomer. Although the ' Origin of Species ' was 

 published in November 1859, its influence upon ornithology in this country 



