PREFACE. 



THE following pages deal exclusively with the birds 

 that breed within the confines of the British Archi- 

 pelago ; consequently the student will find several 

 familiar species omitted, the Fieldfare and the Redwing 

 for example, they having no claim whatever to be con- 

 sidered in a work which professes to be a Handbook to 

 the Oology of our islands alone. 



The idea of a work on the Nests and Eggs of British 

 Birds occurred to me some twelve years ago ; and from 

 that time to the present I have been carefully collecting 

 facts, examining specimens, and so on, with the object 

 of forming a comprehensive handbook to British Oology. 

 The results of my studies are now presented to the 

 reader in the following pages. Most of my information 

 has been obtained from personal observation ; and with 

 very few exceptions I have taken with my own hands 

 nests and eggs of all our British species ; whilst with 

 most of them I have extended my observations over 

 periods of many years. 



In the present volume I have endeavoured to foster 

 Oology as a science, not to encourage the indiscriminate 

 collecting of these beautiful objects from the promptings 

 of a mere bric-a-brac mania. The nest and eggs of a 

 bird to a great extent reflect the life-history of the bird 

 itself, and vividly illustrate no unimportant part of that 

 bird's economy. If my labours serve to elevate Oology 



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