PREFACE. 



T IS with extreme reluctance that I have been 

 induced to publish the following unpreten- 

 tious volume, and I could have wished that 

 the task had fallen into more able hands ; but, 

 believing that a work of this kind is much 

 needed, and no one else apparently being willing to 

 undertake it, I venture with some diffidence to place it 

 before the public, hoping that it will meet with a favorable 

 reception. 



Its object is to place, at a cost within the reach of all, 

 a book that will enable them to identify any bird they 

 may meet with. 



When I first commenced taking an interest in ornitho- 

 logy, I was much hindered by the difficulty -expe- 

 rienced in obtaining works dealing with the subject, those 

 extant being so costly as to be quite beyond my 

 means ; and it was only by practising rigid economy, 

 and the exercise of much self-denial, that I obtained them. 

 Even then my difficulties were not ended ; the infor- 

 mation was scattered throughout so many volumes, and 

 I met with so many perplexing contradictions that the 

 books were often a hindrance rather than a help to me. 

 I conceived the idea of compiling a hand-book for private 

 use, dealing exclusively with that portion of India proper 

 garrisoned by Bombay troops. Many friends, to whom 

 I showed the compilation, expressed a wish to have a 

 similar one, and strongly urged me to publish it; it is 

 in deference to these wishes that the book appears. 



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