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A CATALOGUE of LOCAL LISTS of BRITISH BIRDS. 

 By Miller Christy. 



Lists of the Wild Birds frequenting particular counties or 

 districts are now generally acknowledged to be of considerable 

 value as contributions towards a complete knowledge of the Birds 

 of Great Britain and Ireland. These lists have now become so 

 numerous that it is time some attempt were made to compile a 

 systematic catalogue or bibliography of them, especially as many 

 of them are difficult of access, through their having been pub- 

 lished either in the Transactions or Journals of local Societies, 

 or in pamphlet form, or are almost unknown, because hidden away 

 in County Histories, local Topographies or Guide-books. The 

 following is, I believe, a first attempt in this direction ; and, as 

 such, it is necessarily far from complete. I trust, however, that 

 it will be found to contain the more important local lists, and in 

 any case it will serve as a basis on which to erect a more satis- 

 factory structure. 



With scarcely an exception, I have excluded all volumes or 

 articles which do not aim at giving a tolerably complete list of the 

 Birds inhabiting the districts of which they treat. Mere notes or 

 observations on a few species only are, therefore, entirely omitted, 

 even although they may be purely local. Similarly, I have not 

 thought it needful to include any general works on the Birds of 

 Great Britain and Ireland as a whole, though those on the Birds 

 of England only, or on those of Scotland, Wales or Ireland only, 

 have, of course, been inserted, because they may be fairly regarded 

 as "local." 



In every case, the titles of the volumes or articles entered in 

 my bibliography have been taken by me direct from the works 

 themselves, and have not been obtained second-hand, except in 

 those few instances in which I clearly state that I have not my- 

 self seen the works in question. 



I must apologize for a slight want of uniformity in the arrange- 

 ment and wording of the details of the various entries, which is 

 due to their having been noted down at many different times and 

 places, as I happened to come upon the works in question. I 

 believe, however, it will be found that the information given is 

 sufficient for all practical purposes. 



