The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 09 (of 10)

In this volume of the "Cambridge Natural History" the author has attempted to meet a need which he believes to be somewhat widely felt. Recognising the fact that there is at the present time an abundance of popular, or only slightly scientific, works on Birds, some of which touch but superficially upon the individual species composing the various groups, as regards their plumage or habits, while others pay little or no attention to correctness of Classification, he has essayed the difficult and apparently unattempted task of including in some six hundred pages a short description of the majority of the forms in many of the Families, and of the most typical or important of the innumerable species included in the large Passerine Order. Prefixed to each group is a brief summary of the Structure and Habits; a few further particulars of the same nature being subsequently added where necessary, with a statement of the main Fossil forms as yet recorded.

Thus it is hoped that the work may be of real use, not only to the tyro in Ornithology, but also to the traveller or resident in foreign parts interested in the subject, who, without time or opportunity for referring to the works of specialists, may yet need the aid of a concise account of the species likely to cross his path.

An introductory chapter has been written, to meet the claims of the present day, on the external and to a limited extent on the internal structure of Birds, with short paragraphs on {vi}Classification, Geographical Distribution, and Migration, and a "Terminology" of the subject.

In accordance with the scheme of the Series generally, the order followed runs from the lowest forms and the Ratite Birds upwards; the Carinate Birds being divided, after Dr. Gadow's plan, into two Brigades or main sections, and these again into Legions, Orders, and so forth. It should, however, be understood that the Species of each Genus are often merely placed in the most convenient order; and that, where a geographical range is given, it does not follow that it is unbroken from end to end.

In descriptions of colour, the names used for tints in the British Museum Catalogue of Birds have been commonly adopted, or for British species those in Mr. Howard Saunders' Manual of British Birds.

Various subjects of a highly technical, or at least of a special character, have purposely been avoided in the main, as unfitted to the scope of the work; such are, Variation and Hybrids, with their accompaniments of Dimorphism, Dichromatism, and the like; Myology; Mechanism of Flight and the supposed Lines of Flight on Migration; the Classifications of Linnæus and the older writers; and the Strickland Code of Ornithological Nomenclature. For these Professor Newton's Dictionary of Birds, and especially the Introduction to it, may be consulted; besides a multitude of other works.

The woodcuts have been chiefly supplied by Mr. G. E. Lodge; but a few illustrations have been utilized from other sources.

The author does not hold himself responsible for the fact of the Family names being in Roman in place of Italic type, nor for the dissociation of the vowels in the diphthongs; in these minor points he personally differs from the writers of the former volumes, though he agrees with the wish of his Editors for uniformity.

{vii}In conclusion, he must take the opportunity of acknowledging the invaluable assistance afforded by Mr. Howard Saunders, who carefully went over the whole of the proofs, while Dr. R. B. Sharpe was kind enough to do the same; nor must he fail to record his indebtedness to Professor Newton, Mr. Sclater, Dr. Gadow, Mr. Ogilvie Grant, and many others, not to mention the innumerable authors without whose previous labours to write a book of this description would be a well-nigh impossible task. Dr. Stejneger's Volume on Birds in the Standard Natural History should be mentioned in particular.

A. H. EVANS.

CAMBRIDGE, November 17, 1898.