X PREFACE. 



except to beg of my readers not to condemn even the 

 most mischievous of our feathered friends or enemies 

 without fairly examining the facts on both sides. 



The arrangement I have adopted is that of Yarrell, with 

 one exception, the Wren, which I have restored to its 

 original place amongst the Sylviadae, where it seems much 

 more properly to belong than to the Climbers. This 

 arrangement does not seem to me to be entirely satisfactory, 

 but it is certainly as good as any of the others that have been 

 promulgated, and is on the whole much better known. It 

 divides our British birds into five great Orders : one of 

 these five Orders is subdivided into four separate parts ; each 

 of these divisions, as well as the remaining four Orders, is 

 divided into families or groups. A tabular arrangement of 

 the whole will be found on the next p:ige. 



Of all these groups or families I have been able to 

 include representatives, with the exception of the Struth- 

 ionida3 or Bustards, but some, of course, are much more 

 fully represented than others. 



Those who desire to see figures of the birds I have 

 described are referred to Yarrell's and Meyer's histories 

 of British Birds, to both of which I have repeatedly referred 

 in the following notes. 



C. S. 

 Lydeard House, Taunton, 



September, 18(>9. 



