PEEFACE. 



It is now nearly a hundred years since Markwick, tlie 

 friend and correspondent of Gilbert White, read before the 

 Linnean Society, on May 5th, 1795, his ^ Catalogue of 

 Birds found in the county of Sussex,' numbering 168 

 species, including those which are domesticated. About 

 the year 1800, Mr. Woolgar, of Lewes, made a list of birds 

 observed by him in that neighbourhood, which may be found 

 in Horsfield's ' History of Lewes.' In 1849, Mr. Knox 

 published the first edition, and in 1855 the third, of his 

 ' Ornithological Rambles in Sussex,' quoted in this work as 

 " O. R." Since that time, as far as I am aware, no attempt 

 has been made to give a comprehensive account of its 

 avifauna; there are, however^ several local Societies, — as 

 those of Brighton, Chichester, Eastbourne, Hastings, and 

 Lewes, — which, from time to time, publish their 'Trans- 

 actions,' and doubtless do good work in their respective 

 districts. There is also a Museum at Chichester, and one 

 at Brighton, as well as the splendidly mounted collection 

 of the late Mr. Booth, recently made over to that town. 

 There have been, and there still are, many accurate observers 

 ■who contribute accounts of interesting occurrences in the 

 county to the pages of 'The Zoologist,' especially Mr. 

 Dutton, Mr. Jeffery, Mr. Monk, and Mr. ^Yilson, who for 

 many years have been its correspondents. 



