PREFACE. 



1 H E following work is the produce of upwards of twenty years laborious 

 application. The figures of the Birds were painted from the moft perfeft fpe- 

 cimens of the fubje6ts, and engraved by the Author : the natural hiftory was 

 chiefly compofed from original obfervations, by himfelf and his fons ; and where 

 their knowledge was defeSive, the defcriptions were taken from the beft writers 

 on the fubjed. 



Figures of the eggs have been added 5 which the Author was enabled to do 

 by means of the colleftion formerly in the poflTeffion of that diftinguifhed 

 patronefs of natural hiftory, the late Duchefs Dowager of Portland. He has 

 alfo procured many rare fpecimens not in that coUeftion. The eggs are figured 

 in the natural fize ; as are likewife the birds, when the fize of the plates would 

 admit of it : and where he has been under the neceffity of giving reduced figures, 

 he trufts the exadt defcriptions of the fize, weight, and other particulars of each 

 bird will render this unavoidable variation of lefs confequence. The adult male 

 birds have in general been figured, as being moft perfedl: in plumage : where 

 any ftriking difference fubfifts in the female, a figure of that has alfo been 

 given. 



The whole work will make eight volumes, printed on Whatman's fineft 

 royal quarto wove paper, each confifting of above forty plates of birds or their 

 eggs, richly coloured, and fyftematically arranged, with charafteriftic defcrip- 

 tions of each fpecies. 



The Author cheerfully fubmits the labours of fo many years to the judgment 

 of a candid and difcerning public j prefuming to hope, that the accuracy of his 

 figures, together with the additions to the natural hiftory of the fubjedls, will be 

 thought to render them worthy of encouragement. 



