INTRODUCTION. XXXIX 



Birds in the Museum, E. L C.,' in the present work I 

 shall classify birds in the following Orders : — 



I. Raptores. Birds of Prev. 



II. Insessores, Perching Birds. 



III. Gemitores, Pigeons. 



IV. Rasores, Game Birds. 



V. Grallatores, Wading Birds. 

 yi. Natatores, Swimming Birds. 



The Student will find the characters of these orders, and 

 their division into tribes and families under their respec- 

 tive heads ; and I will here, simply, content myself with 

 besf2:ino^ the reader to understand that it is most difficult 

 to define accurately, or to generalize characters in this, as in 

 other classes of animals ; tlie truth being, as before stated, 

 that every great group contains within itself several distinct 

 types. 



A few words on the geographic divisions of the province 

 to which I have restricted the " Birds of India, " and, 

 for which I refer to the Prospectus. The country, to 

 which the Ornithology of the following volumes is confined, 

 may be conveniently divided into Northern, Central and 

 Southern India. Northern India comprises Bengal proper, 

 the North-west Provinces, the Punjab and Sindh, and the 

 whole extent of the Himalayas, from Cashmere to Bootan. 

 I exclude Assam, Sylhet, Tipperah and Chittagong, for, 

 though most of the birds are identical, yet here commences 

 the peculiar Indo-Chinese Fauna, which extends through 

 Burmah to China, and Malayana.* 



* I would have greatly liked to have included all Eiitish India, from Assam to 

 Tenasserim and Ceylon, in the scope of the present work ; but I was afraid that this 

 addition would have swelled my work to an unwieldy bulk. If, on the near comple- 

 tion of the 2nd volume, I find that it can be done witliout makin<^- too thick a volume, 

 I will add a Supplement containing descriptions of all the species found in that tract 

 of country, with reference to the pages where they should have come in due course. 



