PREFACE 
Tue few prefatory remarks which I have to make will be simply 
in the form of an apology to everyone whom this work concerns, on 
account of the unfortunate delay which has attended its production. 
To Mr. Layard himself I make my apologies for having been so 
long in bringing a second edition of his most useful book before 
the public. To my publisher, Mr. Quaritch, I am grateful when I 
find that his patience has not been entirely exhausted, and that he 
has not before this closed the publication of the book, in despair of 
its ever being completed. And lastly to the subscribers, who have 
not entirely lost faith in me, and who have been most patient and 
uncomplaining during the nine years which have elapsed since 
I issued my first part. I can only say in excuse that the great 
pressure of my work at the British Museum has left me little leisure 
for private enterprise, and has occupied the bulk of the time at my 
own disposal. 
I am fully aware, from the reviews which have appeared in various 
ornithological periodicals, that the plan of the work, as altered 
by me, has not met with the unqualified approval of my brother 
ornithologists, and many field-collectors will doubtless miss the 
descriptions of the families and genera of birds which were furnished 
by Mr. Layard in the first edition. It was, however, impossible on 
the extended basis which I proposed to myself for the second edition, 
if it was to be published at a price within reach of field-collectors, 
to include these descriptions of families, &c., and it will be seen 
that the book has already reached a somewhat unwieldy size. 
