IV PREFACE. 



probably have been compelled to write the greater part, if 

 not the whole, myself. 



The number of species of birds to be described in the three 

 volumes, of which this is the first, exceeds those enumerated 

 in Jerdon's ' Birds of India ' by more than one-half, chiefly 

 because Jerdon omitted the species inhabiting Ceylon, Sind 

 west of the Indus, the Western Punj ab, Hazara, the Upper 

 Indus valley north and north-west of Kashmir, Assam, Burma 

 and the intermediate countries (such as the Garo, Khasi, 

 and Naga hills, Chittagong, Sylhet, Cachar, and Manipur), 

 together with the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, all of which 

 are comprised within the limits of British India as accepted 

 in the present publication. A large number of additional 

 species have also been recorded, since Jerdon' s work was 

 published, from Sind, the Punjab, the North-western Pro- 

 vinces, Rajputana, and the Western Himalayas, the fauna 

 of all of which has become better known within the last 

 25 years. The additional species from the Peninsula are 

 far less numerous. 



No branch of Zoology has, in India, attracted so much 

 attention or enlisted the services of so many observers as 

 Ornithology ; and there is probably no division of Indian 

 biological science, not even Botany, on which so much has 

 been written and of which our present knowledge is so far 

 advanced. Far more is known about the nomenclature, 

 distribution, and habits of birds than about those of mammals, 

 reptiles, or fishes. Within the last ten years some good local 

 faunas have been written, foremost amongst these being 

 Legge's ' Birds of Ceylon ' and Oates's ' Birds of Burmah.' 

 A periodical work with the somewhat eccentric title of 

 ' Stray Feathers/ devoted entirely to Ornithology, flourished 

 for several years under the energetic guidance of Mr. Allan 

 Hume, and within the last 18 months a valuable addition has 



