XIV PREFACE. 



Academy of Sciences of ]\ladrid. Indeed he himself 

 had at one tune planned a work on the subject, and 

 went so far as to have some plates executed for its 

 illustration, which (on finding that he was never likely 

 to carry out the idea) he gave to Colonel Irby, his 

 old friend and companion in many an expedition, that 

 they might embellish the second and revised edition of 

 his useful ' Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar,' in 

 which they were published in 1895. 



Long before this time, however, the scheme of the 

 present work occurred to Lord Lilford, He had, 

 hanging on his walls or stored in portfolios, a number 

 of pictures of Birds by various artists, the contemplation 

 of which always afforded him pleasure, and even relief 

 when racked by pain. That pleasure he thought should 

 not be confined to himself, and he was willing to put it 

 into the power of other lovers of Birds to possess, at a 

 comparatively moderate cost to themselves, whatever 

 might be the expense to him, portraits of their favourites. 

 The help of Mr. Wolf, whose works he justly held 

 in the highest admiration, was unhappily no longer 

 available, but with the services of Mr. Keulemans he 

 thought that most people might be content. Accordingly 

 arrangements were made with that artist for a series 

 of drawings, and the first part of the work appeared 

 towards the end of the year 1885 — the plates being 

 chromolithographed in Berlin. As the distance of that 

 city caused a good deal of inconvenience, trial was made 



