PREFACE. 



IT is not without some degree of gratification that this work 

 on the Avian inhabitants of British India and its Depen- 

 dencies is now brought to a close. It has occupied fully 

 three and a half years of incessant labour and research, 

 which, considering that there were as many as 1,460 species 

 to examine and describe, and that the literature of this 

 number had to be referred to with regard to their habits, 

 nesting, distribution, and synonomy, &c., is not long. It is 

 however some satisfaction to find my subscribers and corre- 

 spondents so impatient for its completion ; a proof of its utility 

 as a Thesaurus with special reference to the Ornis of the 

 British Indian Empire. There has not been any unnecessary 

 delay in issuing the several parts, but the difficulties to be con- 

 tended with in treating the subject systematically as well as in 

 some degree popularly, and the time which would be involved in 

 obtaining specimens of certain doubtful species or sub-species 

 from various correspondents in different parts of India was 

 not calculated, nor was there, at the outset, the faintest 

 thought, that during the publication, I would lose the valuable 

 assistance of several contributors of note, as well as sup- 

 porters of the work, who either died or left for England, but 

 whose reputation in Ornithology have been long ago recorded 

 in the annals of Natural History. By such loss, the distri- 

 bution table, so far as Northern India is concerned, is not as 

 complete as it should otherwise have been. 



