PREFACE AND INTRODUCTION
In this volume it has been my aim to place before the public, and especially the sporting section of the same, a concise work on British Birds which, while accurate and up to date, should be as free as possible from technicalities and as simple and readable as the circumstances of the case permit. In this aim I have been greatly assisted by my friend Mr. W. P. Pycraft (to whom I am also indebted for reading the proofs), who has drawn up the description of each species in such a manner as to admit of its ready identification, while at the same time avoiding all unnecessary details. The wording of these descriptions is, however, in most cases my own work; and in drawing them up the needs of the field-naturalist have been specially borne in mind. The details concerning the colouring of the young of each species (except in the case of the perching birds) form a special feature of the work.
The records of the occurrences of rare visitors to the British Isles are also fuller than in any other work; and in this connection I desire to take the opportunity of expressing my indebtedness to the valuable ornithological journal published by Messrs. Wetherby under the title of British Birds.
As regards the technical names of the various species, I have in the main adopted those used by my former teacher, the late Professor Alfred Newton of Cambridge, being convinced that the splitting-up of generic groups, now so much the fashion, is a mistake. In this opinion I am following the views of a valued colleague, the late Dr. W. T. Blanford, as expressed in the volume on birds in the Fauna of British India.
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