XVll 



tion of particular colour-marks in parts of 

 the body. Aviculture, on the other hand, 

 has for its province the scientific study 

 of birds as mentioned already. Most or- 

 nithologists in the past were ignorant of 

 the avicultural branch of their science, — 

 a state of things which the Avicultural 

 Society has helped a good deal to remove. 

 How far it has been successful in the reali- 

 sation of its objects may be gathered from 

 the fact that in 1900, it could assert its 

 claim so far as to have a special section 

 for aviculture in the International Congress 

 of Ornithology at Paris. The avicultural 

 study of Indian birds was first systematic- 

 ally taken up by those English scientists 

 who established a school of aviculturists 

 in England. The most prominent names 

 among them are those of Butler, Reginald 

 Phillips, Astley, Teschemaker, Meade- 

 Waldo, Seth-Smith, and Humphrys. 



No comprehensive literature on Indian 

 cage-birds from the pen of modern or- 

 nithologists is available. Sporadic attempts 



