PREFACE 



TO THE OCTAVO EDITION OF ILLUSTRATIONS OF BRITISH 



BIRDS. 



The Author cannot permit the first Number of the Octavo 

 copy of his Illustrations of British Birds to come before the 

 Public, without expressing the gratification he has experienced 

 in the distinguished and continued patronage with which the 

 quarto edition of the same work has been honoured, and 

 trusts that the present will meet with equal favour and success. 



The present publication will, in all respects, resemble the 

 former, except in size, and no pains will be spared to render 

 it as perfect as possible. 



To each Number will be subjoined a Plate of the eggs 

 belonging to the birds represented, as no work on ornithology 

 can be complete without them : the eggs alone are not re- 

 duced in size, but are represented, as in the quarto edition, 

 of the natural size. 



It has been the Author's wish to represent the birds, as much 

 as possible, in their natural attitudes ; for which purpose he 

 has, for some years past, availed himself of every opportunity 

 of studying them in nature, and has also collected, and kept, 

 living subjects from which his drawings have been made, as 

 represented in the quarto publication, now within a few parts 

 of its completion. The book alluded to is, as it were, a 



VOL. I. B 



