42 A FIRST TENTATIVE LIST OF THE BIRDS OF THE 



and which, therefore, do not appear at all, or only appear in 

 italics, in my list of the birds of India. All birds which do also 

 occur in any of the above countries or localities, and which 

 are not, therefore, quoad the British Empire, peculiar to the tract 

 we are dealing with, appear in italics. 



To every species of which we have ourselves secured 

 specimens in the Malay Peninsula, I have prefixed a star, 

 and I have added the localities at which we have obtained 

 them. I have also added in the case of these and of other 

 species in italics, localities, (other than those where we have 

 obtained them) assigned for them by others and the authorities 

 for the same. 



In the case of birds of which I doubt either the validity of 

 the species, or their occurrence in the Malay Peninsula, I 

 have prefixed a note of interrogation to the name. 



It will be understood that the region to which this list 

 refers is that portion of the Malay Peninsula, bounded north 

 by the Pakchan Estuary, east by the central watershed line, 

 and west and south by the sea ; and that though including small 

 islands close along shore, such as Junk-selan, Penang, Singa- 

 pore, &c., it does not as yet pretend to deal with the islands 

 lying further out to sea. 



The eastern half of the Peninsula, with which we hope 

 to deal hereafter, will, I am inclined to believe, prove to yield 

 a somewhat different set of birds, and to belong to a recogniza- 

 bly distinct sub-province. 



And now for the list, I merely repeating, to prevent any 

 possible misconstruction, that it makes no pretence to complete- 

 ness, and is only what in mathematics we should designate a 

 working hypothesis. 



The list contains altogether 408 species, out of which I 

 consider that 20, as indicated by notes of interrogation, are 

 doubtful. 



Out of the 408 species in all, or 388 that I admit, we have 

 only as yet ourselves collected specimens of 302, to each of 

 which a star is prefixed. Doubtless during the current year 

 we shall get most of the remaining species, and a great many 

 more ; I shall be greatly surprised if this tract does not prove 

 to contain at least 600 species. 



Out of the 408 species, there are only 124 which, so far as 

 we know, neither cross the Pakchan Estuary northwards, nor 

 (like Lalage terat and Cinnyris pectoralis) appear at the 

 Nicobars, though nowhere on the mainland of India or Burmah. 

 The names of these 124 species are printed in the list in 

 roman type ; the names of the rest, which do occur elsewhere 

 in our Indian dominions, are printed in italics. 



