XI 1 IXTRODUCTIOX. 



collections containing specimens of rarities obtained from dealers ; 

 from the multiplicity of records not free from mistakes, some of 

 tliem detected, others possibly still unwittingly perpetuated in 

 spite of exhaustive inquiries ; and in several instances statements 

 made on what appeared to be reliable authority were only at the 

 last moment discovered to be erroneous. And yet the Authors 

 may claim with some confidence their title to present (if any canj 

 a satisfactory statement of the Ornis of their county. They are no 

 crude beginners, likely to be led astray by enthusiasm to adopt, 

 Avithout careful sifting, the startling reports of occurrences so 

 frequently brought to their notice. They both had for many years 

 the privilege of being associated with naturalists of established 

 repute, such as William Brodrick, one of the authors of 'Falconry 

 in the British Islands,' the Rev. W. S. Hore, the Rev. J. Hellins, 

 E. H. Rodd, Cecil Smith, and last, although not least, J. Gat- 

 combe, whose valuable notes on the birds of the district immedi- 

 ately around Plymouth were for so many years contributed to the 

 ' Zoologist.' They themselves resided for a long period at localities, 

 one in the north, the other in the south of the county, which gave 

 them special opportunities for observing the birds of important 

 districts, and none of any rarity could escape their knowledge. 

 One of them has been a keen sjiortsman who in the spring and 

 summer has wandered with his flv-rod bv most of the delightful 

 Devonshire trout-streams, while in the autumn moor and marsh, 

 oozes and sand-flats, both in the north and south, have echoed to 

 his gun^ and many of the rarer birds have thus been studied in 

 their haunts. The other, from his position for many years at the 

 Albert Memorial Museum at Exeter, possessed facilities for 

 acquiring information, as most of the rarities obtained in the 

 south of the county were either brought to him or were at once 

 reported : he has also been much abroad in South Africa, Canada, 

 and California, and so has had opportunities of becoming acquainted 

 with many rare British birds visiting those countries and of 

 enlarging his experience. The one, some years ago, had projected 

 and almost finished a work of some ambition, which should give an 

 account of the Birds of the South-west Peninsula ; the other had 

 long been collecting notes with a view to publishing a more 

 accurate County List of Birds than had as yet been compiled. 



