PREFACE. Vll 



For the loan of valuable specimens, we avail ourselves 

 of the present opportunity to acknowledge how greatly we 

 are indebted to our esteemed friend, Mr. Eobert Jennings, 

 of Southampton ; to T. Beaven Rake, Esq., of Fording- 

 bridge ; and to Mr. Gardner, of 426, Oxford- street, London, 

 whose generous kindness has enabled us to figure some cha- 

 racteristic specimens selected from his extensive collection 

 of British eggs ; and we shall be glad if this mention of his 

 courteous accommodation should induce any of our readers 

 to seek their rarer specimens from his hands. 



Itchen, January, 1858. 



