GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS 



OF 



CHAPTER I. 



CLASSIFICATION AND BOOKS OF REFERENCE. 



FOR the purposes of the present work, I shall not 

 usually discuss the various orders of birds, but shall 

 confine myself to families, as the limits of these are 

 very well defined and generally agreed upon by orni- 

 thologists, while with regard to the orders hardly any 

 two books agree. The scientific names employed will 

 be those of the bird volumes of the Fauna of British 

 India for Indian Birds ; while for the foreign species 

 which I shall have occasion to deal with I shall use 

 those of the British Museum Catalogue of Birds. Names 

 of birds not occurring wild in the Indian Empire are 

 marked with an asterisk. 



And here a few words on the subject of the classifica- 

 tory terms employed by naturalists may not be out of 

 place, as they are not always understood by beginners. 



A spe&ies is a collection of individuals which reproduce 

 others like themselves. Thus, over most of India we 

 F, GAB 1 



