PREFACE. 



Our second bundle of Stray Feathers has now been safely 

 gathered in, and the Editor's cordial thanks are again due to 

 the many friends, both in India and in England, who, during 

 this present year, have so materially aided his work. 



The successful establishment in any country of a special 

 organ devoted to the promotion of any particular branch of 

 science forms always a more or less important era in its pro- 

 gress. 



Many doubted, when our first little Stray Feather flut- 

 tered out into publicity, whether the time had yet arrived in 

 India for a special ornithological Journal, and not a few protest- 

 ed against the step taken, on the grounds that it would in- 

 evitably draw away from the old established and honored 

 Journal of the Asiatic Society a considerable proportion of 

 the papers on ornithology that would otherwise have graced 

 its pages. 



To the first, the unbroken success and the almost unhoped for 

 support that has attended this Journal during the current year, 

 furnish the best reply that can as yet be afforded. 



In regard to the second, it may be well to give, once for all, 

 some further explanation. 



When the idea of starting a special Asiatic Journal of Orni- 

 thology first presented itself to me, I at the outset consult- 

 ed my late friend, Dr. Stoliczka, then Editor of the Natural 

 History Section of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal, as to whether there were any objections, from his point 

 of view, to the project. 



