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PREFACE. 



About twenty years ago Mr. J. E. Harting began to collect information relating to the 

 group of birds commonly called the Limicolse, with the intention of publishing a monograph 

 of them. In the course of his studies he contributed from time to time articles on 

 this group of birds to ' The Ibis ' and to the ' Proceedings ' of the Zoological Society ; but 

 subsequently his attention drifted into other channels, until in 1884 he abandoned the 

 idea of writing a monograph, and offered his collection of birds for sale. 



I was then writing on the British species belonging to the group, which had always 

 been an especial favourite of mine, and was glad of the opportunity of making my collection 

 more complete. I therefore bought the Harting collection, which, with the Swinhoe 

 collection, already in my Museum, and the Shelley collection of African Limicolse since 

 acquired, provided me with ample material for study as soon as the last part of the 

 ' History of British Birds ' had gone to press. 



The result of this study is the present volume. Acting in accordance with the old 

 proverb " bis dat qui cito dat," I determined not to write a monograph. What I had to 

 say on the habits of these birds I had already said in the work referred to : on the other 

 hand, I found that the study of all the species contained in the group threw quite a different 

 light upon their geographical distribution, and enabled me to correct what appeared to be 

 errors in their classification — their mutual relationship, in fact ; so I determined to make 

 these two subjects the theme of the book. 



To reduce the cost I limited the Plates to those of birds which had either been badly 

 figured or not figured at all, and limited the descriptions to little more than diagnoses. 

 Only those who have tried to write a diagnosis of a species, to put down briefly but clearly 

 the characters that apply to it, at all ages and seasons, and apply only to it, can appreciate 

 the difficulties that have to be overcome. These difficulties are multiplied ten-fold when 

 the diagnosis of a genus has to be written. The diagnosis must apply to every species in 

 the genus and must be inapplicable to any species outside the genus. I cannot hope that 

 all my diagnoses are perfect ; I can only say that I have done my best to make them so. 



The earlier writers on Ornithology, of whom we may accept Brisson and Linneus as 

 typical examples, attempted to diagnose the genera of birds. To the best of their ability 



