Vlll PREFACE. 



species. I had not then considered any special arrange- 

 ment or grouping, but noticed each species seriatim in the 

 order adopted by Mr. Yarrell in his excellent " History of 

 British Birds." Since that date, I have collected so much 

 additional information on the subject, that, instead of 

 eighty pages (the extent of my first publication), three 

 hundred have now passed through the printers' hands. 

 With this large accession, of material, it was found abso- 

 lutely necessary to re-arrange and re-write the whole. The 

 birds therefore have been now divided into certain natural 

 groups, including the foreign and domesticated species, to 

 each of which groups a chapter has been devoted ; and I 

 have thought it desirable to give, by way of introduction, 

 a sketch of Shakespeare's general knowledge of natural 

 history and acquaintance with field-sports, as bearing 

 more or less directly on his special knowledge of Orni- 

 thology, which I propose chiefly to consider. 



After I had published the last of the series of articles 

 referred to, I received an intimation for the first time, that, 

 twenty years previously, a notice of the birds of Shake- 

 speare had appeared in the pages of The Zoologist. I 

 lost no time in procuring the particular number which 

 contained the article, and found that, in December, 1846, 

 Mr. T. W. Barlow, of Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, had, to 

 a certain extent, directed attention to Shakespeare's 

 knowledge as an Ornithologist. His communication, 

 however, did not exceed half a dozen pages, in which 



