vi PREFACE. 



my subscribers, neither do I put the case in a different light or more 

 forcible manner than heretofore ; yet I trust they will pardon me the 

 repetition, in the knowledge that it is to the interest of all parties, to 

 the interest of the science, and to the interest of the public at large, 

 that the proposed object should be attained. 



I now proceed with the agreeable occupation of noticing the con- 

 tents of the present volume ; and these I shall attempt to marshal in 

 the usual order, passing over Quadrupeds as a class in which nothing 

 particularly new or striking has been recorded. 



In Birds, we have had three additions to the British list during 

 the year : the most remarkable of these is a bustard shot in Lincoln- 

 shire: this bird was first announced as the Little Bustard (Zool. 

 1969), by Mr. Roberts, who preserved it, but the same gentleman 

 corrected the error in a subsequent number (Zool. 2065), and it was 

 then pronounced to be the Houbara {Otis Houbara), a well-known 

 African species : subsequently, however, Mr. Gould has minutely 

 examined the specimen, and thinks it agrees more closely with the 

 Otis M'Queenii of Persia ; but it seems highly probable that these 

 are but local varieties of the same bird, the difference between them 

 being extremely slight; in fact Mr. G. R. Gray has given the names 

 as synonymous in his c Genera of Birds,' p. 83. This bird will pro- 

 bably take its station in our lists as the Houbara [Otis Houbara), or, 

 among those who adopt sub-genera, as the Houbara undulata of G. R. 

 Gray. There seems no reason to suspect that this bird had escaped 

 from an aviary, as was at first suggested ; its visit to this island seems 

 to have been perfectly spontaneous ; yet I do not value so highly as 

 some of our ornithologists the occurrence within our boundaries of a 

 bird which has no kind of claim to be considered a native. 



The second addition to our birds is the Melodious Willow-Wren 

 [Sylvia hippolais of Temminck), killed near Dover, and reported to 

 the ' Zoologist ' by Dr. Plomley (Zool. 2228). This exquisite song- 

 ster is well known as a migrant native in Europe, and its occurrence 

 on the southern coast of England was always considered probable. I 



