PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 7 



It may be thought singular that in such a good collection, 

 to the formation of which my father devoted the leisure of 

 a lifetime,, there should still be so many desiderata. But of 

 late years the splitting of species and subspecies has gone on 

 apace, and the most trifling difference, provided it is a con- 

 stant one, is considered enough to entitle a bird to a Latin 

 name of its own. The collection, however, is admitted by 

 many distinguished men of science who have seen it to be 

 marvellously perfect, and perhaps its strongest feature is 

 the series which it can show of the same bird from different 

 localities. 



Before each Bird's name in the following Lists a letter is 

 prefixed indicating to which region of the earth's surface, as 

 named by Mr. Sclater, it belongs : — P. for Palsearctic, E. for 

 Ethiopian, I. for Indian, A. for Australian, Nearc. for 

 Nearctic, and Neot. for Neotropical. And New Z. for New 

 Zealand, following the boundaries giveu in the map to 

 Newton's admirable 'Dictionary of Birds;' New Zealand, 

 bowever, is not one of the six regions defined by Mr. Sclater, 

 who includes it in Australia, but says it is a " well-marked 

 subregion " (' Ibis/ 1891, p. 534). See Professor Newton's 

 article, ( Dictionary/ pt. ii. p. 315. 



The way in which these several divisions are justified 

 by the Birds of Prey, and especially by the Diurnal Birds 

 of Prey, is remarkable, and if they were to be decided 

 afresh by that class of birds alone they could not very well 

 be improved upon. Seven-eighths of the Raptores are found 

 in one region only, — i. f. not in more than one ; and the 

 region which has the greatest number is the Neotropical or 

 South -American region, which contains 181 Hawks and 

 Owls. 



One great feature of the Raptorial series at Norwich has 

 for years been its illustration of geographical distribution ; 

 my father did not care much for duplicates at any time unless 

 they were from different countries. His aim was twofold, — 

 first to show the range of the bird ; and secondly the different 

 shades and tints assumed by that same bird in different 

 places, e. g. in Europe and North America. Thus, to give 

 an example, we have, as illustrating the distribution of the 



