212 Mr. W. T. Blanford on 'Stray Feathers.' 



Hume has not been devoted to a further instalment of his 

 most useful ' Scrap-book/ a work the real value of which is 

 necessarily far less appreciated by European naturalists than 

 by those who, in India, far from museums and libraries, are 

 engaged in studying the avifauna of the country, and to whom 

 a book pointing out what is already known, and what remains 

 for inquiry, may save many an hour of useless toil spent in 

 ascertaining facts already well known to others. 



The objects aimed at in ' Stray Feathers/ and the reasons 

 for commencing a new journal, are stated in a short a Avis au 

 Lecteur " on the cover of the present number, and in a few 

 lines printed on the back of the titlepage. Mr. Hume com- 

 plains that he has sent the descriptions of new species to 

 England for publication, and that his papers have been kept 

 unpublished until he was anticipated by a brother ornitholo- 

 gist ; and he invites all Indian ornithologists " to secure the 

 prompt publication of every new species by inscribing its name 

 and diagnosis in some ' Stray Feather/ which will freely open 

 its pages to all comers." I fear the labours of Indian orni- 

 thologists, I mean those who care more for ascertaining facts 

 than describing new species, will be increased if every collector 

 living away from museums and books of reference is invited 

 to give a name to each bird which he cannot identify. Most 

 of us who have written on scientific subjects in India, or in 

 other countries distant from Europe, know the disadvantages 

 under which we suffer in sending MS. papers for publication 

 in England ; and although my own experience has not been so 

 unfortunate as Mr. Hume's, I should be very glad to be ob- 

 liged to publish nothing at a distance. But I feel that whatever 

 maybe the inconvenience involved in sending papers to Europe, 

 it will be but little diminished by intrusting them, instead, to 

 the mercies of a Calcutta printer, and to the chances of a 

 magazine described by its editor as one of those articles which 

 " no one can expect .... to be very regular in their appear- 

 ance." The success or failure of ' Stray Feathers/ will of 

 course depend upon the amount of assistance received by Mr. 

 Hume from his brother ornithologists ; and the experience of 

 a few months will decide better than any thing else whether 



