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PREFACE. XHE following work is the produce of upwards of twenty years laborious application. The figures of the Birds were painted from the mod perfedt fpe- cimens of the fubjedts, and engraved by the Author: the natural hiftory was chiefly compofed from original obfervations, by himfelf and his fons; and where their knowledge was defective, the defcriptions were taken from the beft writers on the fubjedt. Figures of the eggs have been added j which the Author was enabled to do by means of the colledtion formerly in the poffefiion of that diftinguifhed patronefs of natural hiftory, the late Duchefs Dowager of Portland. He has alfo procured many rare fpecimens not in that colledtion. The eggs are figured in the natural fize; as are likewife the birds, when the fize of the plates would admit of it: and where he has been under the neceflity of giving reduced figures, he trufts the exadt defcriptions of the fize, weight, and other particulars of each bird will render this unavoidable variation of lefs confequence. The adult male birds have in general been figured, as being moft perfedt in plumage: where any ftriking difference fubfifts in the female, a figure of that has alfo been given. The whole work will make eight volumes, printed on Whatman’s fineft royal quarto wove paper, each confifting of above forty plates of birds or their eggs, richly coloured, and fyftematically arranged, with charadteriftic defcrip tions of each fpecies. The Author cheerfully fubmits the labours of fo many years to the judgment of a candid and difcerning public; prefuming to hope, that the accuracy of his figures, together with the additions to the natural hiftory of the fubjedts, will be thought to render them worthy of encouragement.