Preface 



and Hume's Game Birds of India^ Burmah, and 

 Ceylon, with its large number of coloured 

 plates. This valuable work is out of print ; but 

 a copy is to be found in almost every Indian 

 library. Then there is Stuart Baker's recently 

 pubhshed Indian Ducks and their Allies, which 

 contains excellent coloured plates of all Indian 

 ducks. Those who cannot afford to purchase 

 this sumptuous work have in Finn's How to 

 know the Indian Ducks, a safe and inexpensive 

 guide. The same author's How to know the 

 Indian Waders, enables the tyro to identify 

 any dead wader. Lastly, there is Le Mes- 

 surier's Game, Shore, and Water Birds of India; 

 but this, I fear, will be found rather technical 

 for most people. I think I have stated suffi- 

 ciently clearly my reasons for excluding the 

 majority of game birds from the present work. 

 It now remains for me to justify the other 

 omissions. 



In order to render it comparatively easy to 

 identify any given bird, it is necessary that 

 the various classes shall not be too large, and 

 the only way of securing this desideratum is to 

 exclude all the birds that are not frequently 

 met with. 



Some may think that I have omitted certain 

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