[/'Vom, <U JouiiXAL OF ifHE I3f»MiiAY NATUiiAi. Histora' Sr-c'iETY, t)EC 20 lesCl ' 



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BIRDS OF THE INDIAN ElAJPIRE. 



BY 



K. 0. Stliart Baker, O.B.E., F.L.S,, F.Z.S.,M.B.0.U,, C.F.A.O.U. 



It is now 22 years since the last volume of Blanfords' and Gates' 

 Avifauna of British India appeared and it is to be hoped that before 

 very long the Secretary of State for India may see his way to 

 sanction a new edition of tlie Fauna. Pending this, Jiowever. it 

 seeras desirable that something should be done to show our workers 

 in India what has been accomplished since that excellent series was 

 published. With this idea in view I have compiled the following 

 Catalogue. 



It does not for a moment pretend to be complete for much yet 

 remains to be done in working out species, genera and even the 

 families of our Indian Birds. On the other hand our advance in In- 

 dian ornithological knowledg-e has been great since 1898 and many 

 ornithologists have contributed to this advance. First and foremost 

 must be placed Dr. E. Hartert of Tring Museum whose wonderful 

 work on Palaeartic birds (Die Vogel l\ala3artischen Fauna) con- 

 tains au endless wealthof information on all our Indian visitors from 

 Northern climes in addition to much on more purely tropical forms. 

 The late Col. H. H. Harington did useful work amongst the Time- 

 Hida3 and others, including the writer, have from time to time worked 

 out certain families, genem and species. 



The classilication adopted is that of Oates' but certain birds have 

 been removed from one family to another on account of discoveries 

 made since the Fauna was written. Especially has this been the 

 case in the sub-family BrachiipterygineB which has been transferred 

 almost en bloc to the Tui-diclw. 



The Catalogue has been, as-ranged piincipally with a view to 

 economy in space and contains only the following details. The 

 scientific and trivial name of each bird ; the first reference with date ; 

 when the name in the reference is identical with that given in the 

 Catalogue it is not repeated but when trinomials are used in the 

 Catalogue and only binomials in the reference the initial letter of the 

 generic name is given and not the name in full and where the generic 

 name differs from the Catalogue name the reference is then oiven in 

 full. Serial numbers are given and following these the number in 

 brackets according to the I\auna of British India. When one 

 number covers more than one race or species in the Fauna it is 

 repeated in the Catalogue but when a species or sub-species is oiven 

 which is not referred to at all in the I'auna the second number is 

 left blank. After the reference the date is given and then the type 

 locality in brackets and, in some cases where it is necessary to narrow 

 the type limits given, a second locality is noted and vnc/erUved and 

 this second name must be considered the type local itv in future. 



