Excerpt from Britain's Birds and Their Nests Under each plate is given the ordinary English name of the species, the place which it occupies in the system of classification followed in the text, and two measure ments to give an idea of the scale on which the bird is drawn. These are (1) the length in inches from the tip of the beak to the tip of the tail; (2) the length from the carpal joint (the shoulder' of the wing) to the quill-tips - the greatest length of the wing when measured in the position of rest. The figures are average measure ments for adult males according to a standard authority. In most species the females are slightly smaller. Great disparity, or differences in the reverse direction, are usually mentioned in the text. The purpose of the text is to give in popular language an account of the natural history of British breeding birds, considered as such. The list is complete, and in cludes birds which nest only exceptionally in our islands, or which formerly nested here but no longer do so. Birds only suspected of having nested in Britain are mentioned within brackets under the head of some allied species. The birds receiving lengthy treatment correspond roughly to those to which plates have been allotted; but items of special interest or importance, and the inclusion or omission of near relatives, have been important factors in determining whether a species should be fully de scribed or not. It is explained (on p. 227) why the descriptions of the birds of the great Order, Passeres. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.