[Illustration: ALERE FLAMMAM]



AUTHOR'S PREFACE.


I have long regretted my inability to issue a revised edition of
'Nests and Eggs.' For many years after the first Rough Draft appeared,
I went on laboriously accumulating materials for a re-issue, but
subsequently circumstances prevented 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 accumulated 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
foolscap sheets was abstracted. It was not for many months that the
theft was discovered, and then very little of the MSS. could be
recovered.