GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 359 



be-forgotten work, so much has been announced by the many- 

 labourers, both at home and in the Empire, whom he inspired, 

 that there are parts of both Subregions as well known ornithologic- 

 ally as are most of the countries of Europe, while on the other 

 hand there are some districts wholly or almost wholly uninvesti- 

 gated. The enormous collection of Mr. Hume, now in the British 

 Museum, would, if examined by an expert, no doubt yield results 

 as profitable in their way as those which Baird educed from the 

 examination of the North-American collections before mentioned ; 

 but that process has yet to be gone through, and in the meanwhile 

 little has been extracted from them to advance in a wide sense the 

 study of Geographical Distribution, though their importance as to 

 details of what is commonly and irreverently called "species- 

 mongering " by those who are incapable of appreciating its utility, 

 cannot be called in question. At present the lesson which this 

 collection, notwithstanding all the expense and care bestowed on 

 its formation, has to teach is yet to be learnt,^ and there is no 

 help for it but to regard the literature of Indian ornithology as a 

 collection of local monographs containing — some of them admirable 

 — materials which awaits a master hand to work into a scientific 

 and serviceable fabric. 



Under these circumstances it would serve no useful purpose 

 here to enter into details of the various local Faunas which have 

 appeared, nearly all in journals of one kind or another,^ and indeed 

 mischief could hardly be avoided were those details treated by 

 any one who had not especially devoted himself to the elucidation 

 of the subject, and was therefore competent to treat it in a reason- 

 able fashion. 



Ceylon has profited by the residence, by no means continuous, 

 of a series of naturalists who make as respectable a show as can be 

 said for those of any other exotic country. Beginning with Loten, 

 who was governor for the Dutch while they held possession in the 

 island, and formed a collection of zoological drawings, some of 



^ It is greatly to be regretted that on the acquisition by the British Museum 

 of this collection, which of its kind can never have been surpassed, a catalogue 

 of it was not immediately made and published ; for thereby such encouragement 

 to the study of Indian ornithology would have been given, as can hardly occur 

 again. But the opportunity was missed. If the exigencies of the Government 

 service in which he is employed have not permitted Mr. Gates to finish the 

 work he so well began, some recompense is to be found in the thought that Mr 

 Blanford will complete it. 



'^ See, as before mentioned, the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and 

 especially Blyth's contributions to it, from 1841 to 1874. "When Stray Feathers 

 began to appear, it, as might be expected, carried off much of the ornithological 

 contributions which had enriched the older publication. Many excellent papers 

 are contained in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society and The Ibis ; but the 

 whole are too numerous to specify here. 



