iv RETROSPECTIVE NOTE. 
But my hearty thanks are also due to many other friends 
who have so kindly assisted me in making the Collection 
what it is, and among them especially to one of the earliest, 
the late Lord Litrorp. In every case, I believe, their 
welcome contributions have been acknowledged in the text, 
and to enumerate them now would be unnecessary. 
It was my original intention to figure a greater number of 
the eggs of which Mr. Woutey, if not their first discoverer, 
obtained a far finer series than any of his predecessors, and this 
was especially the case with those of the Limicole; but though 
the specimens have been most carefully guarded from the effects 
of light and air, the very lapse of time—in many instances more 
than fifty years—has injured their once delicate tints, so that the 
more accurately they could be now depicted, the less would their 
pristine beauty be represented. Of this I may cite as examples 
the three eggs of Zotanus fuscus (§§ 3638, 3642, and 3643) 
fortunately figured by Mr. Hzwrrson in all their freshness, for 
though the shape and position of the markings, as drawn by 
him with his accustomed fidelity, are unchanged, the tender 
and bright hues have so faded as to leave the specimens hardly 
recognizable at first sight. Portraits of such aged specimens 
would be not only misleading in themselves, but also if com- 
pared with figures from recent examples, as, for instance, those 
so admirably depicted by the late Mr. Poyntine, would fail 
to do justice to the wonderful variety exhibited by the series in 
this Collection. I therefore reluctantly came to the conclusion 
that it would be better to figure no more eggs than those of 
Alca impennis, to which the last objection does not apply, while 
