PREFACE ix 



which all the contributors kindly undertook to revise the whole work, thus ensuring 

 that each should profit by the experience and judgment of his collaborators. 



DRAWINGS 



Bird Drawings. The coloured drawings are intended to help the reader to 

 identify the species he sees. For this purpose they must always, if faithful to their 

 originals, be superior to a photograph or a black and white drawing, however good, 

 for it is by its coloration that a bird is most quickly and certainly recognised. In 

 order to ensure accuracy, the birds have, whenever possible, and in nearly all cases, 

 been drawn from life, not from skins or stuffed specimens, which are often mis- 

 leading ; and, further, no effort has been spared to overcome the difficulties that 

 still hinder accurate reproduction by the three-colour process. 



The object of the coloured drawings is, however, to supply something more 

 than a portrait of each species for purposes of identification. The traditional bird 

 perched on the conventional twig, and regarding space with an eye of philosophic 

 detachment from mundane affairs, can no longer satisfy a public familiar with the 

 latest achievements of natural history photography. Each picture, therefore, 

 besides being a portrait, will, apart from a few exceptions that explain themselves, 

 offer a study of some habit of the bird or of one of its most characteristic and 

 striking attitudes. It will show it in its natural surroundings, whether courting, 

 singing, feeding its young, sitting on its nest, angry, pleased, alarmed, or inquisi- 

 tive, thus combining the realism of the photograph with the added advantage of 

 colour and artistic treatment. The task here imposed upon the artist has been 

 far from easy, and in judging the results the great difficulties of the undertaking 

 should be allowed for. 



Coloured drawings are given of all the species described in the chapters, with 

 the exception of a few, such as the chiff-chaff, Kentish-plover and little-stint, which 

 a few words of comparison with closely allied species suffice to identify. The rare 

 species described in the supplementary chapter at the end of the book are illustrated 

 where necessary by line drawings only. In the case of these species coloured draw- 

 ings would have served no purpose worth the increased price it would have been 

 necessary to place on the book, for they only interest specialists, for whom descrip- 

 tions and line drawings are adequate. 



Egg Drawings. On the egg plates all our British breeding species are repre- 

 sented, and in most cases it has been necessary to show two or more variant types of 

 the egg of the same species. As the sole object of these plates is to aid in identifica- 

 tion, no attempt has been made to show the finer variations ; the same principle 

 b 



