20S THE ZOOLOGIST. 



" Plan of an Indian Ornithology : To include descriptions 

 of the species of all India, from the Himalaya southward ; also 

 those of Ceylon, Sinde, Assam, and the eastern coast of the Bay 

 of Bengal to the Straits of Malacca ; with those inhabiting the 

 islands of the Bay, and the Maldives and Lacadives if practicable." 



Then follows, in brackets and italics, the statement : — 

 " Printed for private circulation, and to elicit further information 

 on the groups treated of." 



From the printed colophon we learn that these three papers, 

 which treat of the CerthiidcB, Capitonidce, and CypselidcB 

 respectively, were printed in Calcutta in 1848, and they would 

 appear to have been written in continuation of a series under the 

 slightly different heading " Drafts for a Fauna Indica," of which 

 the first number on the Colu7nhidce was published in the ' Journal 

 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal' in 1845 (vol. xiv., part ii., p. 

 845), and has been noticed by Mr. Grote in his list of Blyth's 

 papers above referred to. It seems most likely that the series 

 was discontinued when Blyth found that his friend Jei'don was 

 engaged upon just such a work as he himself was contemplating, 

 and he generously communicated to Jerdon much valuable infor- 

 mation which subsequently appeared in ' The Birds of India.' 



Although the three papers now before us were written so many 

 years ago, it will be no injustice to the author's fame to publish 

 them now. Blyth's views as an ornithologist have generally been 

 found, when impartially tested by his fellow workers, to be so 

 sound, that everything which came from his pen seems worth 

 preserving. We are the more disposed to lay them before our 

 readers since the paper on the Cypselida appears to have escaped 

 the notice of Mr. Sclater, who published an excellent monograph 

 of this family of birds in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society ' for 1865 (p. 593), and in the bibliographical introduction 

 to Messrs. Marshall's ' Monograph of the Capitonidce ' (1870-71) 

 no mention is made of Blyth's essay on the Barbels now before 

 us. We propose therefore to print these three papers seriatim 

 in successive numbers of *' The Zoologist," and will commence 

 with that on the Creepers.] 



I. Fam. CEETHIID.E. 



These are birds which creep upon the bark of trees, or some 

 of them upon rocks, or even rugged ground ; having the toes 

 three before and one behind (unlike the Woodpeckers), the outer 



