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.
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.
ADDENDUM
Since the text has been printed off, several new species have been described, and of these it is necessary to mention at least the following;–
Archaeopteryx siemensi, from Solenhofen, where the original form was obtained.–(Dames.)