The Zoologist— September, 1866. 373 



birds: nevertheless it seems desirable to give some account, however 

 brief, of my editorial stewardship. In the first place, I desire explicitly 

 to state that 1 have taken nothing from the text of the original work; 

 and in the second place, I have added scarcely anything of my own : 

 in no instance have 1 overlaid the original with my own observations, 

 altered the author's obvious meaning to suit my own views, or attempted 

 to controvert his assertions because at variance with my own more 

 limited experience : nevertheless important additions have been made, 

 which I will endeavour to explain. 



" 1st. Observation and discovery are incessantly at work ; and these 

 daily add to our store of knowledge: it is no more probable that 

 Science will remain stationary than that this earth will discontinue its 

 rotation : both events are possible, but so improbable that they may 

 not enter into our calculations: hence the voluminous additions made 

 by Colonel Montagu to his original labours; between 1802, the date 

 of the Dictionary, and 1813, the date of the Supplement, he collected 

 new materials more than equal in bulk to the original work : these are 

 now incorporated. In 1833, twenty years subsequent to Montagu's 

 Supplement, Mr. Selby produced his ' Illustrations of British Or- 

 nithology,' and in this admirable work he added twenty-four species to 

 those previously recorded as inhabitants of Britain. Mr. Yarrell pub- 

 lished the first edition of his 'History of British Birds' in 1843; a 

 second edition appeared in 1846, and a third and final edition in 1856. 

 In these three editions no less than fifty-nine additions were made to 

 the number of species described by Selby, and eighty-three to those 

 described by Montagu. The ' Zoologist' has added twenty-one species, 

 and the 'Ibis' two species, not included in either of our systematic 

 works. It must, however, be stated, in fairness to those gentlemen 

 whose researches have contributed so largely to the enormous addition 

 of one hundred and six species since the time of Montagu, that the 

 records and descriptions of many of these appeared first in the ' Zoolo- 

 gist,' and were transferred from thence to the admirable work of Mr. 

 Yarrell ; but I most willingly give that work the credit of all these 

 additions, on account of its systematic character. From these several 

 sources are derived the whole of my editorial additions, as regards 

 number of species. 



"2nd. Immediately following the English name of each bird, is a 

 reference to a figure in the third edition of Yarrell's ' History;' that 

 work is not selected on account of the accuracy of the figure, which is 

 generally commendable, but because of the completeness and high 



