PREFACE. Vll 



which we have to notice Mr. Seebohm's four volumes on 

 " British Birds." The constant use which we have made of 

 our friend's writings in the course of the present volume, is the 

 best testimony if further testimony be needed to the opinion 

 we have often expressed of the excellence of Mr. Seebohm's 

 work. We have no hesitation in repeating that, since the 

 days of Macgillivray, no such original descriptions of the 

 life-history of European birds have been published in any 

 country. Nor can we feel that this praise is exaggerated, for 

 while the descriptions of the habits of birds in Dresser's "Birds 

 of Europe " and oth^r popular works are obviously compiled 

 from the writings of serious field-naturalists like Naumann 

 and Macgillivray, those of Mr. Seebohm are based upon his 

 personal observation, and are the result of his many ornitho- 

 logical expeditions in widely distant parts of the Palaearctic 

 Region. The specimens collected by him during his travels, 

 the nests and eggs which he gathered in some instances still 

 the only ones in any museum, and the notes which he made 

 on the habits of so many European birds, furnished him 

 with original material which has not been exceeded by any 

 writer of the present day. We have, therefore, not scrupled to 

 draw upon Mr. Seebohm's published writings during the pre- 

 paration of the present work, for we have found his " History 

 of British Birds " and Mr. Saunders' " Manual " both indis- 

 pensable to us, in our attempt to give a condensed idea of the 

 Avi-fauna of the British Islands. Mr. Harting's " Handbook " 

 and Colonel Irby's useful " Key-list " of British Birds have 

 both been frequently consulted by us. 



The volumes on " British Birds " in the original edition of 

 the " Naturalist's Library " were admirably written by Jardine 

 himself, and, even up to the present day, command a steady 

 sale in England and America. It became, therefore, doubly 

 difficult for us to determine the form in which we should write 

 i b 



