PREFACE.
The following History of British Birds was published in thirty-seven Parts of three sheets each, at intervals of two months; the first Part was issued in July 1837, and the last in May 1843. During these six years many occurrences of rare birds, and of some that were even new to Britain, be- came known to me, either by the communications of private friends and correspondents, or from the examination of the various periodical works which give publicity to such events. To render this History, therefore, as complete as my means will permit, I devote this Preface to the enumeration of all such occurrences as have become known to me since the period of inserting the account of the species in its order in the body of the work ; and the new subjects have been en- graved on single leaves, so paged, that the bookbinder may insert these separate leaves among the birds of the genus to which each respectively belongs.
Red-footed Falcon, or Orange-legged Hobby. Falco rufipes, vol. i. p. 44. Besides the specimens noticed under this title, Frederick Holme, Esq. of Christchurch Col- lege Oxford, has recorded the capture of a female, which was struck down by a raven in Littlecote Park near Hungerford, and a second, which was shot in Yorkshire. — Zoologist, No. 3, page 78.
The Woodchat Shrike. Lanius rutilus, vol. i. p. 160. E.H. Rodd, Esq. of Penzance, in a communication read before the Royal Institute of Cornwall in 1840, men-
