AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



I HAVE long regretted my inability to issue a revised 

 edition of ' Nests and Eggs/ For many years after the first 

 Rough Draft appeared, I went on laboriously accumulating 

 materials for a re-issue, but subsequently circumstances pre- 

 vented my undertaking the work. Now, fortunately, my 

 friend Mr. Eugene Gates has taken the matter up, and much 

 as I may personally regret having to hand over to another a 

 task, the performance of which I should so much have 

 enjoyed, it is some consolation to feel that the readers, at any 

 rate, of this work will have no cause for regret, but rather 

 of rejoicing that the work has passed into younger and 

 stronger hands. 



One thing seems necessary to explain. The present 

 Edition does not include quite all the materials I had accu- 

 mulated fur this work. Many years ago, during my absence 

 from. Simla, a servant broke into my museum and stole thence 

 several cwts. of manuscript, which he sold as waste paper. 

 This manuscript included more or less complete life-histories 

 of some 700 species of birds, and also a certain number of 

 detailed accounts of nidification. All small notes on slips of 

 paper were left, but almost every article written on full-sized 



