36. Some Remarks on Mr, C. Stuart Baker’s new volume 
on the Birds in the “Fauna of British Ind a.” 
By Hersert C. Roprnson and C. Bonen K toss. 
In July, 1922, under the authorship of Mr. E. C. Stuart 
Baker, was published the first volume of the second edition 
of the ‘‘ Fauna of British India, Birds ” originally by Mr. E. W. 
Oates and Dr. W. T. Blanford. 
The format is very similar to that of the earlier work and 
species have undergone many changes. Several new races are 
described for the first time. We think the practice a bad one ; 
with. The plan for the new edition is to issue it in volumes 
which will follow each other at intervals of two years: it will 
thus be a considerable time before the work is completed. 
In that Mr. Baker recognises subspecies and deals with 
them under trinomial titles, and also cites type localities— 
thus following the latest developments in systematic zoology— 
the present volume is an advance on the first edition. Un- 
fortunately this cannot be said of it in its entirety. 
e author’s method leads him frequently into an ex- 
cathedra attitude and he would probably agree that, since 
his knowledge cannot be complete nor his judgment infallible, 
this method of dealing with the subject is unsatisfactory to 
other ornithologists who are unprepared to accept blindly 
the conclusions of a fellow-worker. 
because he cannot accept them or because he is ignorant of 
them (as instances of this :—Dryonastes propinquus Salvad., 
Ann. Mus. Ciy. Gen., 6, 1915, p. 6: Tenasserim; Garrulax 
