INTRODUCTION. XV 



Ornis of India. Amongst the hundred and one contributors to 

 the Science in the pages of " Stray Feathers," there are some 

 who may be ranked as specialists in this department, and their 

 labors need a record. These are Mr. W. T. Blanford, late of 

 the Geological Survey, an ever watchful and zealous Naturalist 

 of some eminence. Mr. Theobald, also of the Geological Survey, 

 Mr. Ball of the same Department, and Mr. W. E. Brooks. All these 

 worked in Northern India, while for work in the Western portion 

 must stand the names of Major Butler, of the 66th Regiment, 

 Mr. W. F. Sinclair, Collector of Colaba, Mr. G. Vidal, the Collector of 

 Bombay, Mr. J. Davidson, Collector of Khandeish, and Mr. Fairbank, 

 each one having respectively worked the Avifauna of Sind, the 

 Concan, the Deccan and Khandeish. 



The country referred to in the following volumes embraces the 

 whole of India, including those recently acquired possessions in 

 (now British) Burmah. Of this latter and most interesting portion 

 of the Indian Empire, Mr. Eugene Oates, of the Public Works 

 Department, has written a connected and detailed account, 

 and it is from the pages of his valuable work I have been 

 able to add much to the knowledge of the Avifauna of the 

 Indian Empire as it now stands. In his Introduction he gives a 

 resume oi the Ornithological explorations in that country. Colonel 

 Tickell, whose contributions in the early numbers (1833) of the 

 Asiatic Society's Journal are of much interest, is said to be the first 

 Ornithologist who attempted to work Burmah. His field of work 

 was in Tenasserim, chiefly among the higher hills and mountains to 

 the east of Moulmein, culminating in the peak of Mooleyit, which 

 rises about 6,000 feet above sea level. The late Mr. Blyth, after 

 assuming charge of the Asiatic Society's Museum, found willing 

 contributors in Captain (now Sir Arthur) Phayre, also the late Major 

 Berdmore, Dr. Mason and others. Mr. Blyth's contributions of the 

 birds of this country also swell the pages of the Asiatic Society's 

 Journal, as well as those of the " Ibis," His valuable Catalogue 

 of Burmese Birds was his last contribution, and this was published 

 in 1875 by the late Lord Tweeddale as a posthumous work. The 

 latter, recently known as Lord Walden, also interested himself in the 



