PREFACE 



IB want of an Index to Mr. Hume's Journal 

 " Stray Feathers," lias been realized by 

 Ornithologists for many years. The eleven 



volumes of which the series consists are full of 

 important facts and references, to which no 

 complete index has yet been made; so that 

 knowing, as all workers at the synonymy of birds have also 

 known for years, that the preparation of such an Index was 

 extremely desirable, I gladly undertook the task at the request 

 of Mr. Quaritch. It has occupied most of my spare time 

 during the last two years, and I believe that Ornithologists 

 generally will be much surprised at the amount of information 

 collected together by Mr. Hume during the fifteen years that 

 he presided over the fortunes of the Magazine. His own 

 boundless energy is shown by the number of his contri- 

 butions, and he seems to have been the means of gathering 

 round him a set of earnest workers, whose papers are still 

 consulted as of the highest importance. Some of the original 

 contributors to " Stray Feathers " have since become famous 

 by the production of standard works on Indian Ornithology, 

 notably Mr. Eugene Oates and Dr. W. T. Blanford, and 

 inseparably connected with the career of " Stray Feathers " 

 are the names of Mr. R. M. Adam, Prof. Valentine Ball, 



