4 
22 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 
nests and eggs of so-called “ British Birds,” whose only claim te 
the designation lies in their having been met with once or twice 
or even some half-dozen times in the British Isles: to omit it, 
that is, in the body of the book, and to give such reference or 
description of at least the more interesting species and their eggs, 
"as space may allow, in an Appendix. <Acccunts will be, however, 
given of the habits of nidification and the eggs of all unques- 
tionably British Birds, even although their breeding habitat be in 
another country, or most rarely and exceptionally within the com- 
pass of the British seas: such birds, for instance, as the Field- 
fare, the Redwing, the Snow-Bunting, and others, besides several 
of the Anatide. We begin, therefore, with our first Order, the— 
RAPTORES. 
FAMILY I.—VULTURID. 
Two members of this Family, classed by some naturalists as 
belonging to the same genus, by others as species of two different 
genera, have been met with in Britain; but I believe one of 
them, the first-named below, only once, the other only twice or 
three times. They are only mentioned here as showing the 
justification there is for claiming the family of Vulturide as 
being in anywise exemplified in birds belonging to the Britisk 
Isles. 
1. GRIFFON VULTURE—(Vultur fulvus). 
2. EGYPTIAN VULTURE—(Weophrou percnopterus). 
FAMILY II1.—FALCONID. 
There are several species belonging to this Family of suffi- 
ciently common occurrence even still in these tne 4 of game- 
preservers, game-keepers, and vermin-kiilers. 
