PREFACE 
About twenty years ago a rare duck and a wader, both in immature plumage, 
fell to my gun, and, eager to identify the species, I searched every known 
work on British birds, hoping to gratify my curiosity, but in vain. Birds 
galore were to be found there, but not my duck, and all those pictured and 
described were adults — with little or no information as to their plumage 
at any other stage of their existence. Brooding over my disappointment, 
I finally resolved to find out for myself all that was to be learned of these 
interesting creatures, their habits and modes of life, and every circumstance 
connected with their periodical changes of plumage ; and then decided I would, 
some day, embody this information in a book for the benefit of other 
students of Natural History. 
From that day to this I have persistently laboured to this end, and this 
volume is the first-fruit of my research. It is only one unit — part of a series 
that should be written — for other species besides those mentioned here well 
deserve attention ; but so far as it goes it is an accurate record of my own 
experience and observations unhelped by any other source of knowledge ; for 
though in the long interval that has elapsed since I first set about the work 
many other works on British birds have appeared — good books, too, and 
admirably illustrated — yet none of them, so far as I know, cover the ground 
I have endeavoured to take up. 
It is granted that the adults in nuptial dress have been well figured and 
described, yet there are still no books that will show the naturalist the birds 
in other states of plumage, and these conditions are after all quite as 
