iv PREFACE. 



Dr. Blanford died in 1905. For twenty-seven years he 

 had been a member of the Indian Geological Society and 

 had acquired a wide and deep knowledge of the geology of 

 that great Empire. But he was a man of the utmost width 

 of scientific interest. During his many journeys he kept a 

 keen eye on the fauna of British India and it was this first- 

 hand knowledge that enabled him so successfully to complete 

 the great work begun by Mr. Gates. Dr. Blanford was an 

 indefatigable worker and everything that he wrote was of 

 the highest order of merit, marked by thoroughness and 

 accuracy. 



Mr. Gates survived his editor by six years. He had spent 

 thirty-two years in the Public Works Department of India 

 and had devoted all his spare time to the ornithology of 

 British India. He was chiefly stationed in Burma and was 

 undoubtedly the world's authority on the birds of that 

 country. His " Birds of British Burma " in two vohwes is 

 still a standard work, though it has perhaps been to some 

 extent replaced by his later work in "The Fauna of British 

 India." 



He is described by those who knew him us being a lovable 

 but at times hot-tempered man ; but officials who have spent 

 a large part of their lives in the tropics are apt to be a little 

 hot-tempered. The fact that Mr. A. G. Hume made over to 

 Oates the whole of his notes and correspondence when the 

 latter was preparing his work on " The Nests and Eggs of 

 Indian Birds" testifies to the high regard he inspired in his 

 contemporaries. Gn his retirement he "was -requested by the 

 Trustees of the British Museum to catalogue their large 

 collection of British eggs, and he prepared a manuscript 

 of four volumes, covering about, 50,000 specimens. The 

 first two volumes of this catalogue were issued during his 

 lifetime. 



Both he and Dr. Blanford are splendid examples of men 

 carrying on thorough scientific work in the rare and sporadic 

 intervals of exacting, official duties. 



