IV INTRODUCTION. 



further to the Transvaal, and others even breed as far to the north 

 as Grinnell Land, within eight degrees of the Pole. 



Of this miscellaneous troop of residents and visitors, regular and 

 irregular, there are nearly four hundred ; but among the visitors are a 

 large sprinkling of "casuals," included on very doubtful pretences. 

 Englishmen are often accused of a desire to paint the world red ; the 

 average British ornithologist would apparently like to paint all the 

 birds red, provided his name appeared on the label. Really one 

 shudders at the audacity with which the Flamingo, for instance, is 

 claimed as British, although there is an excuse for so claiming him ; 

 but when we find Bulwer's Petrel duly naturalised on the strength of 

 a solitary specimen found floating dead in a Yorkshire river, we feel 

 that we are quite near enough to the unreasonable. 



There are at least a hundred and fifty species gathered under the 

 home flag, owing to their having been killed in this country in much 

 the same way as if we were to shoot the Chinese Ambassador and 

 claim him as British because he died on British ground. But would 

 he have come in a " wild " state ? Perhaps not ; but neither did all 

 the birds that figure in the British list. 



It is very difficult to draw the line ; though, at first sight, the 

 only true ground of admission would seem to be a birth qualification. 

 If a bird can be shown to breed here, out of captivity, some at least 

 of his kind can be assumed to be of British nationality. If, however, 

 we were to adopt this qualification, we should only have the birds 

 whose names appear in the outer margin in our third chapter, and 

 many of our familiar friends would be lost to us. But we need 

 hardly trouble ourselves further in this matter, although we could not 

 well pass it unnoticed. This is a book of identification, not of classi- 

 fication ; and it is obvious that our only course is to adopt the full 

 authorised Ust, and show how the species can be distinguished from 

 each other ; and when we have done that, we can remark on the 

 fewness of appearances which has enabled so many of the rarer birds 

 to lengthen and complicate our task. 



In our first chapter are the names, both popular and technical, 

 which have been used throughout ; in the second is a long list of the 



