vi PREFACE. 



that the mere railway and steamboat travelling 

 involved totals up to something like ten thousand 

 miles, to say nothing of many and many a long 

 and fruitless tramp across bog and fell. But even 

 yet we have not been able altogether to accom- 

 plish our hope and intention of photographing 

 the nest, eggs, or breeding-place of every bird 

 propagating its species within the British archi- 

 pelago ; and I need hardly repeat that we shall 

 be grateful for any help in finding specimens of 

 the few remaining to be figured by my brother's 

 camera. 



A great deal of our work has been of an ex- 

 ceedingly pleasant nature; but I regret to say that 

 such of it as concerns a few of our rarer breeding 

 birds, gallantly striving year after year to maintain 

 themselves in their old haunts, with a persistence 

 only known to inherited love, has often been of 

 the saddest character. When, in spite of all the 

 protective legislation devised by the wisdom and 

 experience of British statesmen and ornithologists, 

 it is possible for one of our very rarest birds to be 

 robbed of its eggs for ten years in unbroken suc- 

 cession, and collectors boast that with a bottle of 

 whisky and a kettle of hot water they can possess 

 themselves of any specimen they desire, the present 

 condition of things is manifestly hopeless. Eggs 

 protected by law are still openly hunted for in 

 the broad light of day by children, young men 

 and old men, maidens and white-haired dames ; 

 and, incredible as it may sound, even waited for 

 for hours together, morning after morning, until 



