PREFACE. 



ANGLO-INDIAN readers of the present work will 

 notice that birds of prey, waders, game-birds and water- 

 fowl have been omitted therefrom, although some 

 species of these such as the kite are among the very 

 commonest birds of the East ; but this was done owing 

 to exigencies of space, which compelled greater atten- 

 tion to some of the " small birds." In dealing with 

 these, also, I have endeavoured, where a choice had to 

 be made, to deal with as many different groups as possible, 

 rather than to particularize many species in one group, 

 in the hope of making the book serviceable as an intro- 

 duction to the study of the ornithology of our Eastern 

 Empire. 



The same considerations have guided me in the 

 avicultural part of the work, wherein I have endeavoured 

 to meet the requirements of the beginner in bird-keeping 

 by indicating those species which are most easily obtained 

 and kept. The names of imported cage-birds are dis- 

 tinguished by an asterisk in the letter press and by Italics 

 in the List of Contents. 



F. FINN. 

 LONDON, 1906. 



