Appendix. 243 



Appendix. 



IN October, 1895, I received from Messrs Brumby and Clarke the first intimation of the 

 proposed production of " British Birds, their Nests and Eggs," enquiring if I would 

 undertake the illustrations. Knowing that such a comprehensive work, containing not only 

 figures of the Birds and their Nests in situ, but also additional coloured plates of the Eggs of 

 all British Breeding Birds, and written for both the Scientific and popular world, could not 

 fail to be of interest to all those who take even the smallest amount of interest in the avifauna 

 of their country, I, therefore gave effect to their wishes by accepting the undertaking. At that 

 time, however, I was busily engaged upon the illustrations of Dr. Butler's work on "Foreign 

 Finches in Captivity," then in course of publication by the same firm. It was, therefore, six 

 months later that I finished the last plate for that book, and immediately set to work upon 

 the first plate for British Birds, in the Spring of 1896. From that time down to the present 

 I have been daily occupied with the work, and it is with a feeling of some satisfaction that I 

 have now completed the long, unbroken spell of labour, which, however, has been of very 

 considerable pleasure for me to carry through. But the amount of work entailed in such an 

 undertaking is very great, as the procuring and selection of all the specimens for figuring, 

 amounting to many hundreds of skins, and as many eggs, has been entirely left to me. 



I may mention that only three drawings out of the 318 plates of Birds are taken from 

 mounted specimens, these being the Hawk Owl, Goshawk, and Capercaillie. The Hawk Owl 

 is from a very fine specimen kindly lent me by the Rev. Murray A. Mathew, and set-up so 

 admirably that the Late Lord Lilford considered it absolutely true to life. The Goshawk, 

 from a specimen set-up by Mr. F. Doggett, accurately representing the manner in which this 

 bird takes its quarry, while the Capercaillie is a modified copy of a fine, mounted specimen in 

 the British Museum. All the plates excepting these three are from skins, combined, in the 

 majority of cases, with sketches from life. 



I will now take the opportunity of expressing my sincere thanks to all those who have 

 so liberally and willingly lent me so many valuable specimens from their collections, and to 

 some friends my especial thanks are due. 



