JOURNAL 



OF THE 



BOMBAY 



Natural Ststflnj §buht%. 



No. 2. BOMBAY, APRIL 1886. Vol 



NOTES ON "THE BIRDS OF BOMBAY," by Lieut. 



H. E. BARNES.* 



(By H. Littledale, Baroda.) 



It would be presumptuous for a mere tyro in ornithology like 

 myself to attempt a detailed or formal criticism of Mr. Barnes's 

 book. It seems to me, speaking generally, to be very fairly done, 

 and to furnish, what many sportsmen and naturalists will be glad 

 to have, a cheap and comprehensive descriptive catalogue of the birds 

 of the Presidency. Until its publication, naturalists have had to get 

 " Jerdon's Birds," " Stray Feathers," Hume and Marshall's " Game- 

 birds," Sharpe's " Catalogue of Birds," Hume's " Nests and Eggs," 

 and other books, costing in all about Rs. 400,and requiring a book-case 

 to hold them, besides entailing much labour to search out particular 

 birds. Now we have this handy and well-printed volume, that will give 

 most that we want for ordinary purposes, will go into a game bag, and 

 costs only Rs. 8. 



Besides presenting the descriptions and measurements of birds as 

 found in Jerdon and other writers, this Handbook contains the results 

 of Mr. Barnes's twenty years' work at the birds of this Presidency, 

 and I have read these scattered observations with so much interest 

 that, like Oliver Twist, 1 cannot help asking for more. And that 

 " more" Mr, Barnes might certainly have given me if he had called 

 on his fellow-ornithologists of this Society to let him have the use 

 of their field note-books for his work ; in records of, and deductions 

 from, field ornithology, the more workers the better work. Hence, 

 if, in the following hastily jotted remarks, I appear to grumble some- 

 what, it is in no fault-finding or ungrateful spirit ; my object is 

 addition, not subtraction, and I heartily thank Mr. Barnes for what 

 he has done, and advise every good sportsman to buy and study his 

 book. 



* Handbook to the Birds of the Bombay Presidency, by Lient. H. Edwin Baenes 

 D.A..C., Central Press, Calcutta, 1885. Price Rs. 8-8, V.P.P. 



