x j v INTRODUCTION. 



thological work, are zealousy watched over and consulted at the 

 British Museum. Assam was next worked out by MacClelland , 

 and his papers, also published in the Zoological Society's Proceed- 

 ings in 1839, are full of interest, and particularly as showing the 

 geographical distribution of the Himalayan birds. 



Dr. Adam collected in Cashmere, as well as in the North-West 

 Provinces of India; Colonel Tytler in Barrackpore and Dacca; while 

 the names of Button and numerous other observers and collec- 

 tors are prominent in the earlier journals as contributors of interest- 

 ing notes on habits, nidification, &c., of species in various parts 

 of kidia. 



Mr. Blyth, who is rightly called the Father of Indian .Ornitho- 

 logy, " was by far the most important contributor to our knowledge 

 of the Birds of India." Seated, as the head of the Asiatic Society's 

 Museum, he, by intercourse and through correspondents, not only 

 formed a large collection for the Society, but also enriched the 

 pages of the Society's Journal with the results of his study, and 

 thus did more for the extension of the study of the Avifauna 

 of India than all previous writers. There can be no work on 

 Indian Ornithology without reference to his voluminous contributions. 

 The most recent authority, however, is Mr. Allen O. Hume, 

 C.B., who, like Blyth and Jerdon, got around him numerous 

 workers, and did so much for Ornithology, that without his 

 Journal " Stray Feathers," no accurate knowledge could be gained 

 of the distribution of Indian birds. His large museum, so liberally 

 made over to the nation, is ample evidence of his zeal and the purpose 

 to which he worked. Ever saddled with his official work, he yet found 

 time for carrying out a most noble object. His " Nests and Eggs," 

 " Scrap Book/' and numerous articles on birds of various parts 

 of India, the Andamans and the Malay Peninsula, are standing 

 monuments of his fame .throughout the length and breadth of the 

 civilized world. His writings and the field notes of his curator, 

 contributors and collectors are the pith of every book on Indian 

 Birds, and his vast collection is the ground upon which all Indian 

 Naturalists must work. Though differing from him on some points, 

 yet the palm is his as an authority above the rest in regard to the 



