Distribution of Birds. 531 



After much solicitation and pressure the Secretary of State 

 for India was induced to authorize the publication of a series 

 of Handbooks on tlie Fauna of British India, under the very 

 efficient editorship of Mr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S. To 

 Mr. E. W. Oates, than whom no more competent person 

 could have been selected, was assigned the task of preparing 

 the Handbook of Birds, and the first two volumes of it have 

 been duly issued (57). But I regret to have to say that 

 instead of being allowed to complete this most valuable 

 piece of work, Mr, Gates has been hurried back to his 

 ordinary duties in Burmah by the Indian authorities. It is, 

 however, some consolation to be able to add that Mr. Blanford 

 has hiniself undertaken to prepare the remaining volume upon 

 the Indian Birds. 



Mr. Oates's revision of the Indian Ornis has been mainly 

 based upon the enormous mass of specimens accumulated by 

 Mr. Allan Hume, C.B., who in 1888 presented the whole of 

 his magnificent bird-collections to ihe British Museum, 

 where, when joined to the previous collections of Hodgson, 

 Sykes, Tweeddale, and other well-known authorities, they 

 form an unrivalled series. Simultaneously with the Hand- 

 book, Mr. Gates has prepared and issued a new edition of 

 ,Mr. Hume's valuable 'Notes on the Nests and Fggs of 

 Indian Birds ' (58), which, I am happy to say, he has found 

 time to finish before his departure to India. Furnished with 

 these two works, and by means of the references given in 

 them, the student of the Indian Grnis will find himself 

 better off for information than, perhaps, in any other part of 

 the world, except Europe and the United States. 



2. The Burmese Countries and Malay Peninsula. 

 In this division of the Griental Region we have also a 

 recent and valuable guide to the Grnis, likewise from the 

 pen of Mr. Gates, published in 1883 (59). Since this date 

 British Burmah has received a huge extension by the annex- 

 ation of what was at that period Independent Burmah, and 

 when this is fully explored many additions to the avifauna of 

 Burmah may be expected. An enterprising Italian naturalist, 



2o2 



