154 THE NATURAL HTSTOET REYIEW. 



" of history." And so far as regards the Ornithology of India — 

 taking the difficulties and the novelty of the task into due considera- 

 tion, we think he has very fairly carried out the object he has had 

 in view in the present volumes, which are the first of a series of 

 similar Manuals intended ultimately to embrace all the vertebrate 

 classes of Indian Zoology. 



Of the great want of such a series of Manuals we think there can 

 be no question. There is no work at present in existence which can 

 supply the information on such subjects required by the many resi- 

 dents in India, who now devote more or less of their spare time to 

 the cultivation of some branch of Natural History. To obtain any 

 acquaintance with what is already known on these subjects, it is ne- 

 cessary, as Dr. Jerdon well observes, to wade through the volumi- 

 nous Transactions of learned Societies (such as those of the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal and the Zoological Society of London), besides 

 divers scientific journals, wherein the records of the numerous Indian 

 observers and describers of such objects are scattered piecemeal. 

 These are of course perfectly inaccessible to the majority of the re- 

 sidents in the up-country stations in India, and even the Natu- 

 ralist who dwells in one of the great capitals of Europe, will often 

 be at a loss when he has occasion to refer to some of them. No one 

 can deny, therefore, that Dr. Jerdon has achieved a good work in 

 having brought to a successful conclusion his first Manual, relating 

 to the Birds of India, contained in the three solid volumes now before 

 us. And although we have heard a report that his labours in 

 continuation of his present task are likely to be interrupted by 

 orders from head-quarters to return to his ordinary duties as Surgeon- 

 Major in the l^Iadras Presidency, we trust that the approbation 

 universally bestowed by the reviewers of Natural History works 

 upon the present earnest of his labours, may induce the rulers of 

 British India to continue the exercise of their unwonted liberality, 

 until the final termination of his self-imposed task. 



Before commencing our general survey of the Indian Ornis, as 

 deducible from Dr. Jerdon's work, it may be as well to give an out- 

 line of the principal authorities which have heretofore dealt with this 

 subject, and upon which Dr. Jerdon, with the assistance of his own 

 prolonged personal investigations in the same field, has founded his 

 work. 



Prom the older writers on Natural History we can glean Little 

 special concerning the birds of the Indian peninsula, and coun- 



