ATJTHOE'S PEEFACE.

I HAVE long regretted my inability to issue a revised
edition of ' Nests and Eggs/ For many years after the first
Bough Draft appeared, I went on laboriously accumulating
materials for a re-issue, but subsequently circumstances pre-
vented my undertaking the work. Now,, fortunately,, my
friend Mr. Eugene Gates has taken the matter up,, and much
as I may personally regret having to hand over to another a
task, the performance of which I should so much have
enjoyed, it is some consolation to feel that the readers, at any
rate, of this work will have no cause for regret, but rather
of rejoicing that the work has passed into younger and
stronger hands.

One thing seems necessary to explain. The present
Edition does not include quite all the materials I had accu-
mulated for this work. Many years ago, during my absence
from Simla, a servant broke into my museum and stole thence
several cwts. of manuscript, which he sold as waste paper.
This manuscript included more or less complete life-histories
of some 700 species of birds, and also a certain number of
detailed accounts of nidification. All small notes on slips of
paper were left, but almost every article written on full-sized