PREFACE. 
—DooGx— 
In the following pages I have endeavoured to describe 
truthfully the incidents of sundry journeys undertaken in 
the last half-dozen years, more or less with a view to the 
prosecution of my favourite study—Ornithology—which is 
fast striding after its sister sciences in the public favour. 
If I may presume to think that anything I have written 
can in any degree help to render Ornithology more popular, 
I shall be amply repaid for the labour and trouble which it 
has cost me. 
I have added a statement, which may not be wholly 
without interest, of the claims of certain rare species of 
birds to be included in the British list. The present plan 
of placing such stragglers on a level with our native 
species is to be reprobated; at the same time it is not easy 
to know what to do with them. They clearly cannot be 
passed over, for they are too important. The proper course 
is to submit them to a close scrutiny, and insert such as 
pass the ordeal in small type, or by indenting them, or 
some other means make it plain that they are not to be on 
the same footing with our indigenous species. 
