INTRODUCTION. 



I HAVE much pleasure in being able to add fifteen new 

 eggs to those of 229 species before figured. 



For these I am altogether indebted to the kindness of 

 those friends, whose assiduity in the pursuit of Natural 

 History has enabled them to add so many rarities to their 

 collections : to them I must again tender my best thanks, 

 which I do most sincerely, for the liberality and kindness 

 with which they have transmitted to me from a distance, 

 things so fragile, and at the same time so rare and difficult 

 to obtain. 



Since the publication of the former part of my work, I 

 have — with all those who may take an interest in the sub- 

 ject — to lament the death of Mr, Hoy, who was one of our 

 most arduous and indefatigable collectors, and to whose ex- 

 ertions — as the oft-repeated mention of his name through- 

 out its pages will testify — my work has owed so much. 



I am sorry that with regard to the eggs now figured — 

 with the exception of that of the Redwing — I have no in- 

 formation to offer from personal observation. They are 

 most of them eggs of birds which have never yet been de- 

 tected breeding in this country. 



For the little I have given I am indebted to the pages of 

 others, and chiefly to those of Mr. Yarrell's book, which 

 is a rich store of our ornithological knowledge up to the 

 present day. 



Finding from the complaints of some of the subscribers 

 to my work, to whom the scientific names of our birds are 

 not familiar, that I have committed an oversight in not 

 giving an index of their English names, I have now added 

 one, which may be pasted into the respective volumes. 



