From JOHN C. NIMMO’S. List 
IMPORTANT WORK ON BRITISH BIRDS 
NOW READY. 
One Volume, Demy 8vo, buckram cloth, gilt top, with 
' Thirty-five Coloured Plates, price £2 2s. net. 
A Handbook of British Birds 
SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE RESIDENT AND 
MIGRATORY SPECIES IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS, WITH 
AN INDEX TO THE RECORDS OF THE RARER VISITANTS. 
BY 
J. Ee REN Ge Peo RLS 
-' ‘Memper or tae Britisn Orntrnonoaists’ Union. 
i NEW AND REVISED EDITION, 
Wirt 35 CoLourep Piarus CAREFULLY REPRODUCED FROM 
Original DRAWINGS BY THE LATH PROFESSOR SCHLEGEL. 
Over 
Extract from Author's Introduction. 
Fo.Lowin@ upon the daily exigencies of official work, the preparation of this 
volume, has occupied the leisure hours of many years, and as an attempt to 
show in one volume the precise status of every so-called British bid, 
distinguishing the rare and accidental visitants from the residents and annual 
migrants, it conveys information of a kind which is not to be found in any other 
work on British birds. 
Divided into two parts, the first portion deals with “ British Birds properly 
so called, being residents, periodical migrants, and annual visitants”; the 
second portion includes the “Rare and accidental visitants,” and a special 
feature of the book is that in the case of every rare bird a list of occurrences is 
given, from the publication of the earliest records (so far as has been ascertained) 
down to the end of the year 1900. The reader is thereby enabled to estimate 
at a glance the precise nature of the claim which any given species has to be 
considered “ British.” Some notion of the labour entailed may be formed 
when, it is stated that the number of references in Part I. amounts to 1500, 
in Part IL. to 2325, and in the whole work to 3825 or thereabouts. 
The measurements of every species are given in four dimensions, namely, the 
length from tip of bill to end of tail; length of bill; length of wing from carpal 
joint to end of longest primary; and length of leg, or rather the exposed 
portion of it (the tarsus) which is most readily seen. 
The Publisher has illustrated the volume by a series of thirty-five plates in 
‘ colour,’ reproduced from original drawings by the late Professor Schlegel, 
representing the heads of two hundred and sixty-two species (in all four 
hundred and seventy-seven figures), showing the plumage of both sexes, as well 
as old and young when necessary, with a fidelity which he ventures to think 
has never been hitherto approached in a work at the price of this volume, and 
which are so accurate as to enable an observer to immediately identify a bird 
by their aid, They have been executed in response toa repeated demand for a 
book ou British birds with accurately coloured plates in one volume. ‘This the 
booksellers have been hithertp unable to supply, the'expensively coloured works 
ot Gould and the late Lord Lilford, each costing not less than fcrty guineas, 
being altogether beyond the reach of those who cannot afford to pay more than 
‘forty shillings for their desideratum. . ‘1 
London: JOHN C. NIMMO, 14 King William Street, Strand. 
