GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 359 
be-forgotten work, so much has been announced by the many 
labourers, both at home and in the Empire, whom he inspired, 
that there are parts of both Subregions as well known ornithologic- 
ally as are most of the countries of Europe, while on the other 
hand there are some districts wholly or almost wholly uninvesti- 
gated. ‘The enormous collection of Mr. Hume, now in the British 
Museum, would, if examined by an expert, no doubt yield results 
as profitable in their way as those which Baird educed from the 
examination of the North-American collections before mentioned ; 
but that process has yet to be gone through, and in the meanwhile 
little has been extracted from them to advance in a wide sense the 
study of Geographical Distribution, though their importance as to 
details of what is commonly and irreverently called “species- 
mongering” by those who are incapable of appreciating its utility, 
cannot be called in question. At present the lesson which this 
collection, notwithstanding all the expense and care bestowed on 
its formation, has to teach is yet to be learnt,! and there is no 
help for it but to regard the literature of Indian ornithology as a 
collection of local monographs containing—some of them admirable 
—materials which awaits a master hand to work into a scientific 
and serviceable fabric. 
Under these circumstances it would serve no useful purpose 
here to enter into details of the various local Faunas which have 
appeared, nearly all in journals of one kind or another,” and indeed 
mischief could hardly be avoided were those details treated by 
any one who had not especially devoted himself to the elucidation 
of the subject, and was therefore competent to treat it in a reason- 
able fashion. 
Ceylon has profited by the residence, by no means continuous, 
of a series of naturalists who make as respectable a show as can be 
said for those of any other exotic country. Beginning with Loten, 
who was governor for the Dutch while they held possession in the 
island, and formed a collection of zoological drawings, some of 
1 It is greatly to be regretted that on the acquisition by the British Museum 
of this collection, which of its kind can never have been surpassed, a catalogue 
of it was not immediately made and published ; for thereby such encouragement 
to the study of Indian ornithology would have been given, as can hardly occur 
again. But the opportunity was missed. If the exigencies of the Government 
service in which he is employed have not permitted Mr. Oates to finish the 
work he so well began, some recompense is to be found in the thought that Mr 
Blanford will complete it. 
2 See, as before mentioned, the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and 
especially Blyth’s contributions to it, from 1841 to 1874. When Stray Feathers 
began to appear, it, as might be expected, carried off much of the ornithological 
contributions which had enriched the older publication. Many excellent papers 
are contained in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society and The Ibis ; but the 
whole are too numerous to specify here. 
