INTRODUCTION. ix 



be forgotten that much of the interest felt in the 

 nesting habits and the plumage of the young 

 of our British birds is due to the late John 

 Gould, in whose magnificent work on the " Birds 

 of Great Britain" both these features were made 

 conspicuous. His collection has passed into the 

 British Museum, and the series of nestling birds is 

 quite remarkable. 



The purchase of such works as those of Gould 

 and Booth is beyond the compass of most of us, and 

 this is an age when everyone expects knowledge to be 

 dispensed at a cheap rate, and to be brought within 

 the reach of people of moderate means. Even Mr. 

 Seebohm's work on British birds, the only one 

 which can fairly be said to take rank beside those 

 of Naurnann and Macgillivray, is expensive, and 

 unattainable by students of natural history, who are 

 daily increasing in number. Mr. Kearton, therefore, 

 steps in at the right moment with this book on 

 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS, and it will be some time 

 before he finds a rival ; for the photographs with 

 which he and his brother have embellished the book 

 are not only beautiful as photographs, but show us 

 the nests and eggs of our birds in situ. I will not 

 detract from the interest of the work by quoting 

 from it ; but the way in which these young natural- 

 ists have overcome the very serious difficulties 

 presented by the task they undertook, proves that, 

 in addition to the native British pluck, the true love 

 of natural history is necessary to accomplish such a 

 result as they have achieved. It is everything to 

 show Nature as she really is, and here photography, 

 the handmaid of science in the field, comes in. 

 Artists will undoubtedly admire the illustrations, but 

 the naturalist will love them still more, because they 

 show him the nests of the birds as the authors 



