PREFACE 



This work has been designed mainly with the purpose of providing, as far as I 

 have been able, sketches in colour from life of our British birds, including not only 

 the resident species but also in most cases those which have more or less regularly 

 or even rarely visited us from abroad. Having for many years past been making 

 studies from life with this object in view, the present seemed a fitting time for 

 carrying out the project, and where it was not possible to obtain living birds for 

 the drawings, I have filled in the gaps from the best preserved specimens I could 

 procure. 



I have endeavoured, where space permitted, to represent as many species as 

 possible of the same family, on the same plate, and drawn to the same scale. 



This not only enables me to make the volumes of a convenient size but also 

 gives the reader an opportunity of comparing the various proportions and 

 divergence of colour in closely related birds. 



Being more familiar with the brush than with the pen, it was at first my 

 intention that this book should be simply a sketch-book of British Birds, practically 

 without letterpress ; but as the work proceeded, I was induced to write a short 

 description of each of the various species represented, giving rough notes, as far as 

 possible, of the distribution, nest and eggs, food, song, and habits of the different 

 birds. 



This letterpress is admittedly and of necessity largely a compilation ; for at the 

 present day it is not easy to supply much original matter, and I have inserted, in 

 addition to that which has already appeared in print, such notes as I have been 

 able to add from my own observations and those of my friends. For full and more 

 scientific accounts of the birds included in this book, I would refer my readers to 

 some of the standard literature on the subject, which has been freely used by me 

 in preparing the letterpress — viz. the fourth edition of Yarrell's British Birds ; 

 Macgillivray's British Birds ; Lord Lilford's Coloured Figures of the Birds of the 

 British Islands, and his Birds of Northamptonshire and Neighbourhood ; Mr. 

 Dresser's Birds of Europe, and his Manual of Palcsarctic Birds ; Mr. J. G. Millais' 

 The Natural History of British Surface-feeding Ducks ; British Diving Ducks ; 

 and The Natural History of British Game Birds ; Howard Saunders' Manual of 

 British Birds (2nd edition); Seebohm's British Birds; also A Hand-list of 



