To edit any work on British Birds and their eggs is not an easy task. To edit the work of such a past master on the subject as my late friend Henry Seebohm, would have been difficult indeed, had I not had his volumes on "British Birds" on which to rely. I have done my best to present this work as I believe he would have wished it to be issued. In a very few cases I have altered the names of species, where I believe he would have altered them himself, but in the main I have retained his nomenclature throughout, and have adhered closely to the names employed by him in his great work on British Birds, merely adding a reference to Mr. Howard Saunders "Manual", and my own "Handbook of British Birds," where the nomenclature of the species differs from that used by Mr. Seebohm.<br><br>With the system of classification I have had nothing to do, as before his death he had planned out and settled the order of the plates with his friend Mr. J.A. Brailsford, and this arrangement has consequently been followed.<br><br>It is satisfactory to know that, whilst many recent Ornithological illustrations have avowedly been "made in Germany," in this instance all the work in connection with the drawing of the eggs, the lithographing of the plates, the printing of the letterpress, and the binding of the volume has been done in Sheffield, at the works of Messrs. Pawson & Brailsford, who are the publishers of the book.