PREFACE. 
The Drawings, of which a few are here engraved, have been made either from 
the living bird, or from specimens so fresh as to preserve most of the character- 
istic appearances of life, while the attitude and background have been studied from 
careful observation of the habits of the wild birds. 
This has of course involved a good deal of trouble, and it is not likely that 
a single observer will have ■ the opportunity, under these restrictions, of obtaining 
good drawings of the whole series of British Birds. Such considerations have no 
doubt induced most illustrators of the subject (even Bewick himself), to put up 
with a stuffed skin for a lay figure, and, apparently, to label drawings so made 
as “ from nature.” 
But in the present instance the artist, without neglecting to refer to stuffed 
“specimens,” has refused to be guided by them, in the belief that drawings really 
from nature (and such only) may be made to give a representation of nature 
more faithful in most essential points than the stuffed skin itself, even when newly 
set up by the most skilful workmen, and of course in a higher degree preferable 
to an idealised copy of the usual faded and withered denizen of a glass-case. 
Even in completeness it is surprising how soon a collection of drawings may be 
made to bear comparison with all but the greatest museums. 
In order to carry out the same idea of interposing as few interpreters as 
possible between nature and the actual print, the drawings have been copied on 
to the stone (or zinc plate) by the same hand as made the original drawings, or 
in some instances the drawing has been made on the stone direct from nature. 
After what has been said it will be understood that the choice of subjects 
has been to some extent limited by circumstances. In many cases, however, it 
was thought better to give several plates illustrating points of interest in the 
habits and growth of one species, than to occupy the same space with others, for 
a complete history of which the materials have not yet been collected. But an 
untoward accident, which at the eleventh hour has befallen a number of the plates 
we had intended to include, has destroyed the links connecting some of our 
illustrations, and made them even less consecutive than they would otherwise have 
been. Yet it is still hoped that this volume may be considered as so far 
complete in itself, or at all events as a contribution not without some value 
