A ROUGH TENTATIVE LIST OF THE BIRDS OF INDIA. 75 



I have not referred to passages merely giving an account 

 of breeding habits or nidification, because all these will be 

 easiest referred to in the new edition of Nests and Eggs, now 

 soon I hope to issue. 



Of course the bird will not always be found described under 

 the particular name now adopted in the list. Thus, taking 

 91bis. — Ptyonoprogne obsoleta, Cab. — S. F., I, 1, 417. Turn- 

 ing to the first reference, the reader will find a Ptyonoprogne 

 pallida, Hume, described, but a glance at page 417 (the second 

 reference) will show that the two are identical. Thus too in 

 the case of a vast dumber of species on turning up the reference 

 to Dr. Jerdon's work, the reader will find there, under the 

 same number, a bird described under a different name to that 

 used in this list. The conclusion to be drawn in all such 

 cases is, that I believe that the bird described by Jerdon, in the 

 passage and at the number indicated, should stand under the 

 name given in thd~list, and not under that adopted by Jerdon. 



A full and complete description will not, in some cases, be 

 found at any one of the places referred to, but any one who 

 reads carefully all the several passages to which references are 

 given, will generally have little difiiculty in identifying the 

 species, since even where no detailed description has been fur- 

 nished, the characteristic points of difference between the 

 species in question and other nearly allied and more common 

 ones which Aave been fully described, will have been clearly 

 set forth. 



It will not unfrequently happen, that on looking up all the 

 references, contradictory opinions will be found to have been 

 expressed. Where these are by the same authority, the author^s 

 latest utterances must be accepted as his more mature opinion, 

 but where they are by different authors, the reader must 

 accept the point as an unsettled one, and do what he can 

 towards elucidating it. 



This list includes the Birds of the whole Empire, except 

 Beluchistan, Afghanistan, Badakshan, Wakhan, &c., on the 

 North- West ; the Maldives, the Mergui Archipelago, and the 

 western half of the Malay Peninsula. 



I have for long had in hand a complete list including the 

 birds of these also, (so far as they are known to me,) with the 

 full specific synonymy of each species, together with its distribu- 

 tion within the Empire as a whole. 



The first draft of this, however, which is a work involving 

 great labour, can hardly appear in less than two or three years, 

 and in the meantime this list will, I am assured, be very useful 

 to my numerous coadjutors, will enable them, I hope, to identify 

 ani/ species they get, will show the names that, so far as I have 



