INTRODUCTION. \ix 



mortim. Under this system no new names can possibly be raked up and 

 applied ; and it is one which reduces the chance of a difference of opinion 

 to a minimum. 



In the selection of generic names I have followed the Stricklandian 

 Code with the following modifications : 



1st. I take it for granted that the edition of Brisson's ' Ornithologia/ 

 said to have been published in 1 788, really did exist, and that it was a 

 reprint of the 1760 edition. 



2nd. "\Yhen the evidence as to the original type of a genus is not clear, 

 then I follow the majority of authors in the selection of a type. 



3rd. I accept the designation of a type as a clear definition of a genus 

 and as overriding any error in the characters given. 



4th. Wherever the name of a species has been selected for the name of 

 a genus, the species whose name has been so adopted becomes of necessity 

 the type of such genus. 



oth. I adopt the specific name which has been most used, regardless of 

 whether it be or be not the same as that of the genus. 



I hope by these means to have eliminated the weak points of the code, 

 and to have made it possible for uniformity to be the result of the honest 

 effort to carry it out. 



I have not figured the birds treated of in my book, partly because they 

 have been so well portrayed in the magnificent plates of Gould's ' British 

 Birds ' and in the less ambitious illustrations of Dresser's ' Birds of 

 Europe ' * } and partly because it would have made the work too expensive. 

 I might have tried wood-engraving; but I could scarcely have expected to 

 find an artist who would equal the exquisite cuts in YarrelFs ' British 

 Birds/ 



On the other hand, there has not been a good book on British birds' 

 eggs published for more than a quarter of a century, if we except the 

 fragment of the catalogue of Wolley's collection which appeared nineteen 

 years ago. It is a thousand pities that so many valuable notes which must 

 have been made on the breeding-habits of rare birds in Lapland should 

 still remain unpublished. In my opinion, John Wolley stands out promi- 

 nent amongst all other British field-ornithologists as the one solitary 

 example of a man who has shown in the pursuit of oology the pluck 

 worthy of an Englishman. Even at the present day too many British 

 oologists look upon the subject from the point of view of the mere collector 



* Every ornithologist who can afford it ought to buy this work. It is an encyclopaedia 

 of information about European birds compiled from all the best sources. It is unfortu- 

 nately disfigu*Pd with more than the usual average of blunders, especially in the numerous 

 translations from the German, which can seldom be relied on. It is much to be regretted 

 that such an incompetent translator should have been employed ; but with all its faults it 

 is a work which is invaluable to the student. 



