PREFACE 



Could an interest in any ornithological group only be created by the beauty of dress 

 or gracefulness of form of its various members, it might possibly happen that the 

 BucEROTiDiE would not be selected as the subject for an illustrated monograph; and 

 while their full value is always accorded to these attributes, perhaps occasionally even 

 in an exaggerated degree, yet as Nature never made an ugly object (even the most 

 repulsive thing so called being admirably and wonderfully fitted for the place it is 

 destined to fill in life), beauty of plumage and symmetry of form are by no means 

 the only causes that lead a naturalist to choose any one group as an especial object 

 for study. The very peculiar appearance of the majority of the birds contained in 

 this volume, as well as the extraordinary habits and structure common to all, which 

 make them to differ from other feathered creatures, together with the generally 

 meagre accounts of many of the species, only to be met with by searching numerous 

 publications, were the chief reasons that induced me to select this family as the subject 

 of my fifth illustrated monograph. 



Scattered as the species are over many countries, it has not fallen to the lot of 

 any one ornithologist to observe all of them in their native haunts ; but beside what 

 could be gathered from published accounts, to be found in various journals written 

 in many languages, I have been most kindly aided by those who have enjoyed 

 opportunities of observing certain species in the localities where the birds dwell. 

 Although in the various articles accompanying the species in the body of this work 

 I have endeavoured to express my thanks to those who have in any way helped me, 

 I would nevertheless take this opportunity to repeat them, apologizing at the same time 

 to any one of my friends whose name I may inadvertently omit. To Mr. A. O. Hume, 

 who has at all times in the most generous manner given me the benefit of his extensive 

 knowledge of the Indian species, and incurred the expense of a special expedition to 

 procure for this work specimens of Anorrhinus tickelli, of which no example 



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