INTRODUCTION. 



THOSE who are acquainted with the works of Bewick, 

 Montagu, Jardine, Selby, Macgillivray, Yarrell, and Gould, 

 without having made a special study of their contents, may 

 well be excused for doubting whether a further publication 

 on the subject of British Birds can be either desirable or 

 necessary. 



Practical ornithologists, however, who may take up this 

 Handbook will see in it an attempt to supply a want which, 

 notwithstanding the admirable works above referred to, they 

 must have frequently experienced*; for in two important 

 respects, at least, do these fail to satisfy their requirements : 

 they do not distinguish with sufficient clearness the species 

 which are truly indigenous to Great Britain from those which 

 are but rare and accidental visitants ; nor do they indicate 

 with sufficient authority the scientific nomenclature which 

 should be adopted for the species of which they take cog- 

 nizance. 



Without attention to the first of these points, it is impos- 

 sible to form any thing like a correct estimate of the character 

 of the British avifauna; while to neglect the second is to 

 perpetuate error, and to render perplexing that which should 

 always be simple and intelligible. 



* Cf. Alston, < Zoologist,' 1866, p. 453. 



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