PREFACE. 



In this part of my Manual I have 

 attempted to deal with the species of 

 Ducks and Snipes which occur within the 

 limits of the Indian Empire, forty-four 

 in number. 



The Game Birds which are now known 

 with certainty to occur in India number 

 altogether one hundred and thirty-four 

 species, of which two have been dis- 

 covered since the issue of the first part 

 of this Manual and are now brought to 

 notice in an Appendix to this volume. 



The treatment of the Ducks has entailed 

 an amount of original investigation which 

 I little contemplated when I first proposed 

 to write about them, and the issue of this 



