PREFACE. Xlll 



place. To the "List of European Birds," which I 

 have added, I have appended a second, containing 

 all those species which have been occasionally- 

 observed in Europe, but which have really no just 

 claim to a place in its avi-fauna. Many of them 

 we are not yet in a condition to erase entirely. 

 Several accidental visitors have been unavoidably 

 omitted from my work, some for want of authority, 

 others for want of specimens. I do not think, 

 however, that any really well-established and un- 

 doubted indigenous European species has been left 

 out. 



There are other points upon which I should 

 like to have said a few words; but my space is 

 "used up," and it only remains for me now to 

 perform the most agreeable part of my task — that 

 of thanking those gentlemen who have so kindly 

 and generously assisted me in the prosecution of 

 this work. 



And first on my list I must name Mr. J. H. 

 Gurney, M.P., the first and the last of my friends. 

 His magnificent collection of Raptorial Birds was 

 placed at my service; and I shall always feel 

 grateful for the fund of information which he was 

 ever ready to allow me to draw upon, and to in- 

 corporate in my work. To the Eev. H. B. Tristram 

 my thanks are also especially due, inasmuch as 

 more than one half of the birds figured have been 

 from valuable skins placed by him most generously 

 at my disposal; while his stores of ornithological 



