PREFACE. vii 



species dealt with are units of fairly well-defined groups, about 

 which, as groups, systematists are on the whole pretty well 

 agreed. 



The number of species and races of Game Birds and Wild 

 Fowl which may fairly claim to be included in the British 

 Avi-fauna is 127. The majority of these do not breed within 

 our limits, but are either regular winter visitors, or abnormal 

 migrants, of varying degrees of rarity, to the United King- 

 dom. The British and foreign geographical area of each 

 of these has been traced, and the various allied forms noted, 

 with their distribution and distinguishing characteristics. The 

 habits, notes, food, nest, and eggs have been described as fully as 

 space allowed, or as completely as our knowledge extends ; whilst 

 the diagnostic characters of each will enable the naturalist or 

 sportsman readily to identify the various British species, and are 

 in my opinion infinitely preferable to long, tedious, detailed 

 descriptions of plumage. 



Little need be said of the sport that our British Game Birds 

 and Wild Fowl yield, or of the healthy invigorating recreation 

 derived from the pursuit of that sport. Field and covert shoot- 

 ing is not without its excitements and delights, even in these 

 degenerate days of breech-loaders and battues ; but, to my mind, 

 the cream of all gun sport is skimmed by the wildfowler and the 

 shore-shooter. There is a charm about the chase of Wild Fowl 

 which no covert-shooting can excel or equal ; for the incom- 

 parable skill demanded in punting up to the flocks of wary 

 Ducks and Geese, in stalking the shy Waders on the muds and 

 marshes, or in "getting on" to the fleeting Fowl with deadly 

 effect as they pass like arrows over your cold and lonely ambush 

 during flight time, is very different from that required for the 

 work of even a warm corner in some highly preserved cover. 

 Then there is the charm of uncertain expectancy which is the 

 shore-shooter's and wildfowler's own — the delicious feeling of 

 never knowing what the next shot may be, as fen and marsh are 

 traversed. Away from the mere pleasure of killing, which, alas, 

 seems inherent in male human nature, there is the greater 

 pleasure of watching the ways of the wary Fowl, of studying their 

 habits and economy. Sportsmen have it in their power to render 



