VI 



A REVISED LIST OF THE BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



this and the sea, not yet surveyed, and barely indicated on 

 even the best maps, to each of which some species seem more 

 or less confined, and that along these valleys and ridges, 

 species seem to run further, sometimes a hundred miles further, 

 south or north, in the valleys than they do in the hills, or in the 

 hills, than they do in the valleys, in a perfectly (at present) 

 inexplicable fashion. Doubtless, further researches and the 

 co-operation of numerous local observers, which this paper is 

 mainly designed to render possible, will clear up much, but 

 the distribution of species in Tenasserim must long, I fear, 

 remain, owing to the peculiar physical configuration of the 

 province and its vast uninhabited and inaccessible tracts, a 

 very perplexed question. 



I attempt no comparative analysis of the birds of the 

 province. This would be at present wholly premature ; at 

 least 200 species will, I apprehend, have to be added to 

 our list before it is completed, and it so happens that 

 certain huge blanks in our explorations cover tracts that we 

 have reason to believe will yield a set of species, belonging to 

 a foreign avifauna, hardly as yet represented in our list, and 

 altogether vitiate any conclusions that could now be drawn as 

 to the proportions in which the Indian, Indo-Burmese, Siamese 

 and Malayan faunas are combined in those of Tenasserim. 



The sum and substance of Davison's experiences, so far as I 

 have had time • to get them recorded (and intensely as he 

 dislikes the bother nothing could exceed the willingness and 

 zeal with which he has aided me in this matter), will convey 

 a clear, if not very detailed, idea of the nature of the localities 

 affected by, and the general habits of all those species, and 

 they are very numerous, which he has been able to observe, and 

 will show which those are of which we know least. 



Besides the descriptions of species as yet undescribed in Jer- 

 don and Stray Feathers, I have added dimensions and colours 

 of the soft parts of many species in regard to which too little in 

 these respects seemed to me to be on record. 



I have not touched on nidification : a great deal has been done 

 and learnt on this subject, but I hope soon to issue a revised and 

 greatly enlarged draft of Nests and Eggs. 



I had wished to give a general sketch of the distribution else- 

 where within the British Indian Empire, of each species enumer- 

 ated. I did this last year in preparing that part of the paper 

 which refers to the Sunbirds, so as to send it to Captain Shelley 

 for his woi'k. I have let this stand as it was ready, but I have 

 been unable to find time to do it for any other group. 



As for the arrangement of the species, it is illogical and defect- 

 ive, but it follows my old catalogue which is based on Jerdon's 

 work, and from this I could not 'well deviate, until my revised 



