vl PREFACE. 
accurate and trustworthy accounts of the Nests and Nesting-sites 
the Eggs, and any ascertained nesting or breeding-season pecu- 
liarities of every undoubtedly British-breeding species. And the 
author’s difficulty has often been out of the large mass of available 
materials at hic command, acquired by personal observation o1 
from the reading and notes of many years, to select what might 
be instructive, interesting or amusing, without burdening the 
book with unnecessary details, or encroaching too much on the 
allotted space. 
The principle adopted in the illustrations has been to omit all 
representations of eggs either white or nearly white in colour, in 
order to husband space for the admission of a greater number of . 
those characterised by varied colours and markings. On the same 
ground, although it was earnestly desired by the artist io give more 
than one representation of some of the very marked variations 
- occurring in the eggs of several species, he has been pom tied to 
content himself with selecting and figuring the most typical or 
normal forms in all such cases. All the illustrations given have been 
carefully drawn from unquestionable specimens, and Mr. Coleman 
desires to acknowledge in this place the assistance, which in this 
matter, has been afforded him by that excellent and accurate 
practical naturalist, Mr, F. Bond. 
