PREFACE. vii 



increasing House-Sparrows. In severe weather, 

 Redwings, Fieldfares and Mistle-Thrushes have 

 been plentiful, while Wood Pigeons, Tits and 

 Blackbirds may be considered permanent resi- 

 dents, so that, even in the west of London, 

 many species come under our daily observation. 



Such slight knowledge, however, avails us little 

 in writing about rare visitors, in the shape of 

 birds, to Britain. Those treated of in the 

 present volume have occurred but seldom — they 

 will never be common residents, in our time at 

 least — and to learn about their habits, we must 

 go further a-field. It will, I believe, be of some 

 interest to students of British Ornithology to 

 read something about the life-history of the 

 species, which Mr. Keulemans has here depicted, 

 and I have had great pleasure in putting together 

 a few notes on some of these most interesting 

 avian visitors from foreign parts. Naturally, 

 much of the information on their habits has had 

 to be extracted from the writings of naturalists 

 who have had the good fortune to meet with 

 the species in life. The works of Mr. Seebohm, 

 especially, have been laid under contribution, 

 because it is impossible to write about our rarer 



