INTRO! >l < I ION. XXlll 



flight. The last are the web-footed birds, as the ducks, charac- 

 terized by their webbed feet, and generally broad, spathulate bills. 

 A more detailed account of the orders, sub-orders, families and 

 sub-families into which these have been divided will be found 

 under the respective headings in the body of the work, which cannot 

 from its nature have much pretensions to originality. 



It is only as a descriptive handbook of the birds of British India, 

 that this work should be regarded. The idea of writing it did not 

 originate wholly with myself, but besides the trouble and incon- 

 venience experienced by me in my official capacity when Curator of 

 the Kurrachee Museum in looking up literature for determining 

 species, there was a general conviction among all my correspondents 

 and numerous working cabinet and field naturalists that a work of 

 this kind in a moderate compass would be welcomed as supplying 

 a desideratum, especially if all the knowledge extant of the birds of 

 British India were put together under one consecutive serial number, 

 so as to remedy the present existing confusion, and simplify identi- 

 fication. Numerous valuable \vorks have been laid under contribution 

 in preparing the work, especially Sharpe, Seebohm and Gadow's Cata- 

 logues ; Jerdon's valuable Manual ; Gates' Birds of British Burmah ; 

 Stray Feathers ; Ibis ; Hume's Nests and Eggs, &c., &c., all of which 

 have been referred to under the synonyms of species, and thus avoiding 

 the use of inverted commas wherever they may have been required. In 

 doing this latter I would crave the indulgence of all authors for the 

 privilege I have taken, of in this way, so largely addingfrom their valu- 

 able works, to the existing knowledge of the Avifauna of British India. 

 I only trust that this small effort will find public favour. It will be made 

 as complete as possible. As the work progresses, everything new to 

 the Ornithology of India will be added, so that future labourers will 

 no longer have to search far and wide, and consult large libraries 

 of books, often too vainly, for what has been already recorded ; but 

 in using this work will find it an unpretending manual to guide them 

 in adding to the present accumulation of facts, much which is at 

 present hidden and unknown to science. 



In concluding this Introduction, it only remains for me to 

 acknowledge the valuable assistance received in this attempt to collate 



