PREFACE 



TO 



THE THIED EDITION, 



THE publication of the third edition of this History of 

 our British Birds supplies the opportunity of including 

 the record of seventeen species new to the British Cata- 

 logue ; fifteen of which are figured and described in their 

 places in these volumes, and notice of the occurrence of 

 two others, also new, is here added, with further particu- 

 lars of some recent and rare additions. More than one 

 hundred pages have been added to the text. 



STRIX ASIO, Linn. The American Mottled Owl. This 

 bird was shot by Joseph Owen, who resides at Kirk- 

 stall. It was killed in the breeding -season of 1852, in 

 Hawksworth cover, the property of Lord Cardigan, half 

 a mile above Kirkstall Abbey, on the banks of the river 

 Aire, about four miles west of Leeds. A pair of these 

 Owls were seen by Mr. Owen, and having shot one, 

 he went to their haunt, night after night, to obtain the 

 other, but without success. I was favoured with a notice 

 of the occurrence of this bird by Richard Hobson, Esq., 



1) 



