PREFACE. 
On the conclusion of my “ Handbook ” I should like to say 
a few words, principally in reply to some friendly criticisms. 
The plentiful crop of works on British Birds, which springs up 
year by year and apparently flourishes, renders it almost an 
impossibility to write a book on the subject on altogether ne^^ 
lines, as the story of our native birds is being told by a 
hundred authors in a hundred different ways. Within the 
restricted limits allotted to me in the “ Naturalist’s Library,” it 
was manifestly impossible to produce a monographic work, 
and therefore I chose the form of a ‘ Handbook,’ a method 
which possesses its advantages and disadvantages. Such a work 
cannot be exhaustive, and I have therefore only tried to make 
't useful, and I offer a few remarks by way of an “ Apologia.” 
Nojnenclature . — The names adopted for the species have been 
much criticised. Much of this criticism has been prompted by 
pedantry, and a sort of hero-worship for the work of the 
ancients, more by a child-like ignorance of the principles of 
scientific nomenclature, and still more by a wilful and narrow- 
minded intolerance of anything that seems to be “new.” As a 
matter of fact, nothing in my system of nomenclature is “new,” 
and any one who says so does but display his ignorance of 
1‘ecent ornithological literature. It is, however, encouraging 
to find that in the best-known popular journals, and even in 
e best scientific publications of this country, little fault has 
Deen found with the method of my “ Handbook,” but a general 
^ns aught has been made upon the nomenclature I have 
opted. To the reviews in the scientific journals I have 
^ y any reply to make. The writers of the articles will be 
n adopting my nomenclature in the near future, and if 
