INDISPENSABLE WORKS ON BRITISH BIRDS. 



n. 



A DICTIONARY OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



By EDWARD NEWMAN, F.L.S., F.Z.S., <fcc. 



EDITOR OF THE 'ZOOLOGIST' AND 'ENTOMOLOGIST.' 



1. In this work the whole of Colonel Montagu's ' Dictionary,' 

 ' Supplement ' and ' Appendix,' are reprinted in a combined and 

 alphabetical order, the words SUPPLEMENT and APPENDIX being 

 prefixed to whatever is derived from these two sources. Nothing 

 that Montagu has published is omitted or altered. 



2. Observation and discovery are incessantly at work : it is no 

 more possible for our knowledge to remain stationary than for 

 this earth to discontinue its rotation ; hence the additions which 

 Colonel Montagu found it necessary to make between 1802, the 

 date of the ' Dictionary,' and 18^13, the date of the Supplement: 

 these additions, now incorporated, exceed the original work in 

 bulk. In 1833 Mr. Selby published his ' Illustrations of British 

 Ornithology,' and in this work twenty-four species unknown to 

 Colonel Montagu were described. In 1843 Mr. Yarrell published 

 the first edition of his * History of British Birds ;' in 1846 a 

 second edition, and in 1856 a third and final edition : in these three 

 editions that amiable and most painstaking author added, from 

 various sources, no less than fifty -nine species. The ' Zoologist ' 

 has added twenty-one species to those mentioned by Montagu, 

 Selby and Yarrell. The descriptions of these added species are 

 extracted from the works of Temminck, Selby and Yarrell, are 

 marked by inverted commas, and accompanied by a reference to 

 the volume and page. 



3. Immediately after the name is inserted a reference to a 

 figure of the bird and a figure of the egg : these references are 

 added both to the original and the new descriptions. For this 

 purpose Yarrell's ' History of British Birds ' and Hewitson's 

 ' Oology ' have been selected : these works are at present, and for 

 the next half-century will certainly continue, our standard 

 authorities : these interpolations are also enclosed in editorial 

 brackets. 



PRICE TWELVE SHILLINGS. 



JOHN VAN VOORST, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW. 



