THE GRADUAL INCREASE OF KNOWLEDGE IN THIS AS WELL AS OTHER BRANCHES OF ZOOLOGY, AND THE LABOURS OF SEVERAL RECENT NATURALISTS, AMONG WHOM STAND PROMINENT THE NAMES OF TEMMINCK AND MONTAGU, HAVE ESSENTIALLY CONTRIBUTED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THESE VARIOUS AND UNEXPECTED CHANGES OF PLUMAGE, AND CLEARED UP MANY OF THE DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES, IN WHICH THE HISTORY OF SEVERAL SPECIES HAD BEEN SO LONG INVOLVED."-Selby. 66 BUT THERE WERE OTHER LABOURERS WHOSE EFFORTS ASSUMED A MORE SCIENTIFIC ASPECT. THE LATE GEO. MONTAGU, ESQ. CULTIVATED WITH ZEAL MANY DEPARTMENTS OF BRITISH 200LOGY. IT IS BUT A JUST TRIBUTE TO THIS NATURALIST TO STATE THAT, IN HIS WRITINGS, HE APPEARS PROGRESSIVELY TO HAVE BEEN FORSAKING THE ARTIFICIAL METHOD, AND ACQUIRING A KEENER RELISH FOR PHYSIOLOGICAL RESEARCHES; THE TRUTH WAS AT ALL TIMES EAGERLY SOUGHT AFTER."—Fleming. DICTIONARY OF BRITISH BIRDS. BY COLONEL G. MONTAGU, F. L. S. SECOND EDITION. WITH A PLAN OF STUDY, AND MANY NEW ARTICLES AND ORIGINAL BY JAMES RENNIE, A.M., A.L.S. PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY, KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON; AUTHOR OF "INSECT ARCHITECTURE," "INSECT LONDON: HURST, CHANCE, AND CO., ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD. INTRODUCTION. THIS EDITION will be found to differ from the first in the following particulars. I. It having been thought useful to give, in the body of the Dictionary, an explanation of the terms used by those who have written upon Birds, and also some account of their anatomical structure and physiology, I have, in accordance with this, distributed Colonel Montagu's original Introduction in the order of the alphabet, under the articles EGG, INCUBATION, MIGRATION, &c.; and other interesting observations under CUCKOO, GOLDCRESTED WREN, &c., because they directly related to these birds. II. To supply the place of the original Introduction, the matter of which has been thus transferred to what was deemed a more logical station, I have drawn up a Plan of Study, according to the method I have pursued in my own researches,-namely, first observing a fact or circumstance in the fields, then endeavouring to discover the design it was intended to serve by the great Creator, and subsequently examining the statements to be met with in books, in order to compare these with what I had actually observed. This will be seen to differ from the current methods of study, by giving importance to single facts or circumstances personally observed, and traced to their Providential causes; while by the other method these are represented as of no intrinsic use, their value being only relative, as connected with some |