PREFACE. 
VI 1 
which we have to notice — Mr. Seebohtn’s four volumes on 
“ British Birds.” The constant use which we have made of 
°ur friend’s writings in the course of the present volume, is the 
best testimony — if further testimony be needed — to the opinion 
we have often expressed of the excellence of Mr. Seebohm’s 
work. We have no hesitation in repeating that, since the 
days of Macgillivray, no such original descriptions of the 
life-history of European birds have been published in any 
country. Nor can we feel that this praise is exaggerated, for 
while the descriptions of the habits of birds in Dresser’s “Birds 
°f Europe ” and other popular works are obviously compiled 
from the writings of serious field-naturalists like Naumann 
and Macgillivray, those of Mr. Seebohm are based upon his 
Personal observation, and are the result of his many ornitho- 
logical expeditions in widely distant parts of the Pakearctic 
Region. The specimens collected by him during his travels, 
the nests and eggs which he gathered — in some instances still 
the only ones in any museum, — and the notes which he made 
°n the habits of so many European birds, furnished him 
with original material which has not been exceeded by any 
writer of the present day. We have, therefore, not scrupled to 
draw upon Mr. Seebohm’s published writings during the pre- 
paration of the present work, for we have found his “ History 
°f British Birds ” and Mr. Saunders’ “ Manual ” both indis- 
pensable to us, in our attempt to give a condensed idea of the 
^ v i-fauna of the British Islands. Mr. Plarting’s “ Handbook ” 
ar “d Colonel Irby’s useful “ Key-list ” of British Birds have 
both been frequently consulted by us. 
1 he volumes on “ British Birds " in the original edition of 
the “Naturalist’s Library” were admirably written by Jardine 
Uns elf, and, even up to the present day, command a steady 
sale 
in England and America. It became, therefore, doubly 
difficult for us to determine the form in which we should write 
i b 
