54 Mr, R. B. Sharpe's Introduction 



sists in the fact that it gathers together into one compass all 

 the scattered literature of Indian birds which existed up to 

 that period, and it is especially valuable as containing a con- 

 nected list of references to Mr. Blyth's papers spread over 

 many volumes of the Asiatic Society's ' Journal/ It must 

 therefore never be forgotten that in that year ornithologists 

 possessed for the first time a nearly complete literature of 

 Indian birds, so far as Accipitres, Passeres, and Picarise are 

 concerned. A lull then appears to have taken place in Indian 

 ornithology, broken only by occasional papers from Mr. 

 Blyth, Colonel Tickell, and other field-naturalists, until the 

 year 1862, when Dr. Jerdon brought out the first volume of 

 his ' Birds of India.' This book, which was published in 

 three octavo volumes, was completed in 1864; and, equally 

 by naturalists at home as by field ornithologists in India, it 

 has been recognized as the standard work on Indian orni- 

 thology. Many years must elapse before its utility will be 

 impaired ; and it is certain that every one writing on the 

 birds of India has to take Jerdon's book as his starting- 

 point, Mr. Blyth's able critique on this book in 'The Ibis * 

 added considerably to its importance ; and in 1872 Dr. 

 Jerdon himself contributed a series of supplementary notes 

 to the last-named journal : these have been duly recorded in 

 a second edition of the ' Birds of India,' published under the 

 superintendence of Colonel Godwin-Austen. A very inter- 

 esting MS. work by the late Colonel Tickell, with beautifully 

 painted pictures of Indian birds, has also been presented to 

 the library of the Zoological Society of London. 



If, however, Indian ornithology is indebted to an incal- 

 culable extent to the labours of Blyth and Jerdon, there is 

 at least one naturalist whose claim to equal rank with the 

 above-named pioneers will be admitted hj every future his- 

 torian of the subject. This is Mr. A. O. Hume, who for the 

 past fifteen years has worthily trod in the footsteps of his 

 renowned predecessors; and one cannot but regret that 

 neither Blyth nor Jerdon have survived to see the results of 

 their early studies as pushed towards such a brilliant conclu- 

 sion by Mr. Hume. To attempt to write on Indian birds 



