PREFACE.
T h e few prefatory remarks which. I have to make will be simply
in the form of an apology to everyone whom this work concerns, on
account of the unfortunate delay which has attended its production.
To Mr. Layard himself I make my apologies for having been so
long in bringing a second edition of his most useful book before
the public. To my publisher, Mr. Quaritch, I am grateful when I
find that his patience has not been entirely exhausted, and that he
has not before this closed the publication of the book, in despair of
its ever being completed. And lastly to the subscribers, who have
not entirely lost faith in me, and who have been most patient and
uncomplaining during the nine years which have elapsed since
I issued my first part. I can only say in excuse that the great
pressure of my work at the British Museum has left me little leisure
for private enterprise, and has occupied the bulk of the time at my
own disposal.
I am fully aware, from the reviews which have appeared in various
ornithological periodicals, that the plan of the work, as altered
by me, has not met with the unqualified approval of my brother
ornithologists, and many field-collectors will doubtless miss the
descriptions of the families and genera of birds which were furnished
by Mr. Layard in the first edition. I t was, however, impossible on
the extended basis which I proposed to myself for the second edition,
if it was to be published at a price within reach of field-collectors,
to include these descriptions of families, &c., and it will be seen
that the book has already reached a somewhat unwieldy size.