vl DICTIONARY OF BIRDS 
enquiries often made of me, to be greatly needed: leaders 
who in most respects are certainly not ignorant of things in 
general, frequently find in works of all sorts, but especially 
in books of travel, mention of Birds by names which no 
ordinary dictionary will explain; and, on meeting with a 
Caracara, a Koel or a Paauw, a Leatherhead, a Mollymawh 
or a Yom-fool, are at a loss to know what kind of bird is 
intended by the author. On the other hand I have not 
thought it necessary to include many names, compounded 
(mostly of late years) by writers on ornithology, which have never 
come nor are likely to come into common use—such as Crow- 
Shrike, Crow-Titmouse, Shrike-Crow, Shrike- Titmouse, Thrush- 
Titmouse, Titmouse-Thrush, Jay-Thrush and the like. Happily 
these clumsy inventions are seldom found but in technical 
works, where their meaning, if they have one that is definite, 
is ab once made evident. Their introduction into the present 
volume would merely swell its bulk with little if any com- 
pensating good. On this account I have also kept out a vast 
number of local names even of British Birds, which could have 
been easily inserted, though preserving most of those that 
have found their way into some sort of literature, ranging 
from an epic poem to an act of parliament; but I confess to 
much regret in being compelled to exclude them, because the 
subject is one of great interest, and has never been properly 
treated. It will thus be seen that my selection of names to 
be inserted is quite arbitrary. I have tried to make it tend to 
utility, and whether I have succeeded, those who consult the 
volume will judge. 
Thanks to the complaisance of Messrs. Longman and 
Company I have been able to acquire: electrotypes of a con- 
siderable number of the woodeuts which illustrated Swainson’s 
