Opinions on the "Avifauna of British India. 



The Times of India of March 18 says : 



Since Jerdon wrote his work on "The Birds of India," no naturalist has shown an 

 ambition to give to the world, in a concise form, a work on the Avifauna of India, 

 based on a more natural arrangement, and including all the new species known to 

 occur in India daring the past quarter of a century. Hume, with his large collection 

 and " Stray Feathers," at one time intended, it is believed, to have issued such a 

 work, but,' having liberally given his collection to the National Museum, this is 

 no longer possible. Murray, an author of some repute, or rather undoubted repute, 

 is the only known naturalist who has ventured to publish works on Indian zoology 

 and botany, also with such success that a copy of his published works cannot be 

 had. The first part of his great work has just been issued, and the patient labour 

 devoted to the work is apparent on every one of the hundred pages it contains. 

 In order to popularize ornithology, woodcuts are given of the heads of species typical of 

 the genus, and also of species not well known. The lithographs are exceedingly good, and 

 Mintern Brothers deserve credit for their work. The book is certainly a model of what it 

 should be, well written, admirably arranged, free from unnecessary repetitions and 

 quotations. It contains ample descriptions of plumage, habits, distribution and nidification. 

 The arrangement of the text is also good. The article on each species is composed of 

 six parts : I. Synonomy. 2. Description. 3. Habitat and Distribution. 4. Observations. 

 5. Habits ; and lastly, Nidification, as far as the materials within his reach would carry 

 him. The author deserves all the encouragement possible from scientists, and it behoves 

 the Government, too, to help an undertaking which must have cost the author immense 

 labour, besides a large expenditure. To say the least, there is no work on Indian 

 ornithology which can be compared with the work now before the public. Mr. Murray 

 has laid all ornithologists under obligations to him. To any one taking up the study of 

 ornithology the work is to be recommended, and it is to be hoped that it will receive 

 from Indian ornithologists the support it so emphatically deserves. 



The Bombay Gazette also says : 



The first instalment of Mr. Murray's new work, which was long a desideratum, has 

 just been published. The late Dr. Jerdon wrote his work on the " Birds of India" in 

 1862. Since then the journals of scientific societies, both in India and in England, and 

 " Stray Feathers" too, have brought to light numerous new and interesting forms from 

 almost untrodden lands in India and Burma, which were unknown to Jerdon and to 

 science, and till now no one but Mr. Murray would undertake the arduous task of 

 consulting the multitude of scattered papers for the additions which were made from 

 time to time, of blending all previously published materials into one harmonious whole, 

 and thus rendering greater facilities to the future student of the ornis of British India. 

 The first comprises above a hundred pages of neat and very closely-printed matter des 

 criptive of all the diurnal and some of the nocturnal birds of prey. The illustrations, 

 twenty-one in number, comprises wood-cuts of heads of species, showing (i) the generic 

 character as described in the text ; (2) of species not generally known throughout India, 

 as Gyptetus barbatus, the Bearded Vulture or Lammergeyer, the Bay Vulture and others, 

 all of which are well executed. The lithographs by Mintern Brothers are all that can be 

 desired and reflect much credit on the firm, while those done at the Education Society's 

 Press, although they have not the finish of those done in England, serve their purpose 

 fairly, depicting as they do the markings and characters necessary for identification. 

 The author has gone well into the synonomy of each species, and has rightly limited the 

 references chiefly to the more important works and journals on Indian Ornithology. 

 Under Hab., the geographical distribution is rather elaborately worked out, and much 

 labour has evidently been expended on the collateral information furnished in regard to 

 habits and nidification. Any very detailed criticism of a work of the magnitude this 

 one will ultimately reach is not possible, nor is it possible to speak in too high terms of 

 the author's labours. As a standard work, with a revised classification, arranged accord- 

 ing to the most modern, natural and generally accepted system, there is not another 

 work on Indian Ornithology which could be so well recommended as deserving of public 

 support. Students, faunistic workers, and all ornithologists, Indian and Continental, 

 should supply themselves with a copy of it, for it cannot fail to be of the greatest ser- 

 vice to them. It has also to be borne in mind, as the author says, that the number 

 of coloured and other illustrations will depend very materially on the amount of support 

 which may be given to the work. 



Professor WURTZ, of Florence, says : 



" It is something Ornithologists in this part were long looking for. It will be invalu- 

 able to our working Ornithologists." 



Dr. A. C- L. G. GUNTHER, of the British Museum, in epist. says : 



"A book of this scope and plan will be a great boon to Indian Ornithologists-" 



