BIRDS
By A. H. Evans, M.A., Clare College, Cambridge
London
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1899
All rights reserved
In sicco ludunt fulicae.–Virgil.
Loons disport themselves on dry matters.
PREFACE
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 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.