VI PREFACE 



fication, Geographical Distribution, and Migration, and a " Ter- 

 minology " of the subject. 



In accordance with the scheme of the Series generally, tlie 

 order followed runs from the lowest forms and the Eatite Birds 

 upwards ; the Carinate Birds being divided, after Dr. Gadow's 

 plan, into two Brigades or main sections, and these again into 

 Legions, Orders, and so forth. It should, however, be under- 

 stood that the Species of each Genus are often merely placed in 

 the most convenient order ; and that, where a geographical range 

 is given, it does not follow that it is unbroken from end to end. 



In descriptions of colour, the names used for tints in the 

 British Museum Catalogue of Birds have been commonly 

 adopted, or for British species those in Mr. Howard Saunders' 

 Manual of British Birds. 



Various subjects of a highly technical, or at least of a special 

 character, have purposely been avoided in the main, as unfitted 

 to the scope of the work ; such are, Variation and Hybrids, 

 with their accompaniments of Dimorphism, Dichromatism, and 

 the like ; Myology ; Mechanism of Flight and the supposed Lines 

 of Flight on Migration ; the Classifications of Linnseus and the 

 older writers ; and the Strickland Code of Ornithological Nomen- 

 clature. For these Professor iSTewton's Dictionary of Birds, and 

 especially the Introduction to it, may be consulted ; besides a 

 multitude of other works. 



The woodcuts have been chiefly supplied by Mr. G. E. Lodge ; 

 but a few illustrations have been utilized from other sources. 



The author does not hold himself responsible for the fact of 

 the Family names being in Eoman in place of Italic type, nor 

 for the dissociation of the vowels in the diphthongs ; in these 

 minor points he personally differs from the writers of the former 

 volumes, though he agrees with the wish of his Editors for 

 uniformity. 



