XX INTRODUCTION. 



of half a century ago, who, so long as he possessed an egg of each species 

 of British bird, did not care whence it came or under what circumstances 

 or by whom it was collected ; and where they rise above this level, they 

 scarcely get beyond the almost equally melancholy point of view of the 

 museum curator, who, when he has labelled his specimen with name, 

 locality, date, and collector, thinks that the requirements of science are 

 satisfied. Of late years 



Oology 



has been much neglected. Some ornithologists ignore the subject alto- 

 gether. It is looked upon by a few clever men as being specially adapted 

 to the capacity of the schoolboy, but somewhat beneath the dignity of the 

 scientific man ; and it is in consequence too frequently despised. The 

 new impetus given to the study of all branches of natural history by 

 the discoveries of Darwin and Wallace has at length reached Oology ; and 

 an additional interest is given to it from the light which it throws in many 

 cases upon the relationships of species and genera. The connexion between 

 the colour of the egg and the colour of its surroundings, where it is ex- 

 posed to danger, is also an additional question of interest of a strictly 

 scientific character. 



It is, however, an immense mistake to suppose that the history of a 

 bird is completed by the meagre details given in such ultra-scientific 

 works as the British Museum Catalogues. In these high and dry publica- 

 tions nothing is given but the synonymy, sufficiently complete to be an 

 index to the literature, a minute description of the colours of the plumage 

 and the changes produced by age, sex, and season, and the geographical 

 distribution. These particulars may be sufficient for the museum curator ; 

 but for the field -naturalist they are but the foundation upon which his 

 superstructure is to be built. The real history of a bird is its life-historj. 

 The deepest interest attaches to every thing that reveals the little mind, 

 however feebly it may be developed, which lies behind the feathers. The 

 habits of the bird during the breeding-season, at the two periods of migration, 

 and in winter ; its mode of flight and of progression on the ground, in the 

 trees, or on the water ; its song and its various call- and alarm-notes ; its food 

 and its mode of procuring it at different seasons of the year ; its migra- 

 tions, the dates of arrival and departure, the routes it chooses, and the 

 winter quarters it selects ; and, above all, every particular respeetino- its 

 breeding, when it begins to build, how many broods it rears in the reason 

 the place it selects in which to build its nest, the materials it uses for the 

 purpose, the number of eggs it lays, the variation in their colour size and 

 shape, — all these particulars are the real history of a bird ; and in the 

 account of each species of British bird I endeavour to give as many of 

 them as possible. 



Oology may be described as the poetry of Ornithology ; and to do it 



