FOREWORD. 



Before issuing this little catalogue in book form the Editors ot 

 the Bombay Natural Historj'- Journal have, at the request of some 

 subscribers, asked me to correct it and again bring it up to date. 

 This would mean re- writing the whole catalogue and taking some 

 five years or more in so doing and the object with which I com- 

 menced the catalogue would be defeated. 



My idea in bringing it out was not to provide a complete 

 or nearly complete, catalogue of the birds of India worked out to 

 the full extent of my own ability. All I hoped to do was to supply 

 workers, both in the field and the museum, with a very rough 

 catalogue shewing what advance had already been made in dis- 

 coveries, nomenclature, etc., since Blanford's time. The Avifauna, 

 of which one volume has appeared whilst a second is nearly 

 ready, will take some years more to complete, for it means that 

 every bird's name has to be worked out again, de novo, to see 

 whether it is correct and a vast amount of literature has to be 

 examined and consulted to see what new facts, if any, have been 

 recorded concerning it. 



It is hoped, however, that the catalogue will to some extent fill 

 the gap until the last volume of the new edition of the Avifauna 

 appears and in the meanwhile I would most cordially invite 

 criticism of all kinds and especially in reference to distribution. 

 I shall also be most grateful if m}- attention is drawn to publications 

 which I have, or appear to have, overlooked. As the first volume 

 of the Avifauna is already out I have added to the catalogue a few 

 pages of Corrigenda and Addenda which include all new forms des- 

 cribed therein and corrects names wLere necessary. Other than on 

 these points I have only given a list of the few corrections which it 

 appears really necessary to draw attention to. The catalogue, I 

 regret to say, is very full of imperfections, due in great measure 

 to Author and Printer being so far apart, but obvious misprints and 

 mistakes in punctuation I have passed over without comment, they 

 will be as obvious to the reader as to the writer and do not affect 

 the subject-matter whilst correction would only add to the cost of 

 publication. 



Upper Norwood, E. 0. STUART BAKER. 



29«A May 1923. 



