PREFACE. 



Since our last number appeared, Indian, and indeed Asiatic, 

 ornithology has sustained a severe loss in the death of the 

 Marquess of Tweeddale, better known under his earlier titles of 

 courtesy, Lord Walden and Lord A. Hay. 



With considerable field experience acquired as a collecting 

 naturalist in his earlier years, he combined, in his later ones, a 

 really deep, and thorough acquaintance with ornithological 

 literature, and he was certainly particularly happy in disentang- 

 ling the most confused strings of synonymy. For years it has 

 been expected that (possibly in conjunction with Major Godwin- 

 Austen) he would bring out a revised edition of Dr. Jerdon's 

 History of the Birds of India, and his lamented and compara- 

 tively early death in depriving us of this hoped-for work has 

 inflicted a most serious, indeed almost irreparable, loss on 

 Indian ornithology. 



Of the band of British pioneers in Indian ornithology, BIyth, 

 Jerdon, Hodgson, Tickell, Hay, Sykes, Tytler, McClelland, 

 Franklin, Hutton, he was the last in harness, and leaving us 

 Las left, we believe, no single man competent to replace him 

 fully in his own special branches of ornithology. 



In India, again, during the past year we have had to deplore 

 the loss of Mr. A. Anderson, an honest and zealous practical 

 ornithologist. We are but a small body of workers out here, 

 and every such loss makes a sad gap in our ranks. 



In this 7th Volume we had hoped to include a tentative list 

 of the birds of India, with references to the passages in Jerdon 

 and Stray Feathers, where each is described or discussed ; but 

 this, although in type, occupies so much space, and the present 

 volume already so far exceeds its prescribed limits, that we 

 have been compelled to reserve it for the first number of 

 Volume VIII. This will issue immediately, and all our many 

 correspondents, who have been so zealously urging on us this 

 thankless and wearisome task, must kindly forgive the trifling 

 further delay. 



We started Stray Feathers under the vain delusion that 

 we were going to write in it when we liked and what we 

 pleased, but as time goes on, we find ourselves completely 

 at the disposal of our kind, but at times somewhat, if we dare 

 say so, exigeant supporters. 



First, our index did not please, and we had no peace until that 

 was altogether changed ; then there was this terrible list, which 



