262 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums. [Vov. VIII, 
We have not consistently followed the 1oth rather than 
the 12th edition of the “‘Systema-Naturae.”’ 
In the matter of genera, which in ornithology are more 
artificial than in almost any other group of the animal king- 
dom, we have been still more conservative, and have eschewed 
the use of many proposed by Mathews, Oberholser and others, 
though we frankly confess that the attitude taken up is not 
strictly logical and that the genus-splitter may, after all, be 
able to maintain his opinions by arguments at least as cogent 
as those that are now so generally admitted in favour of his 
cousin, the species-splitter. 
The geographical limits of the present list are strictly 
those of the main island of Sumatra; the inclusion of the 
western ‘and south-eastern groups of islands might have rend- 
ered it more complete, but while the latter groups have not 
been intensively studied and do not therefore harbour many 
peculiar named races, the former have been largely collected 
on and are supposed to contain some 150 species peculiar to 
them, whose affinities and relative distinctness are at present 
in many cases known only to the describers. Under these 
circumstances and in the absence of actual material it has 
been thought best to leave well alone and omit all the islands, 
the more so as the peculiar element that does exist in the 
western chain is no more nearly related to the avifauna 
of Sumatra than it is to that of Java and the mainland of 
Indo- Malaya. 
We have not attempted to emulate Moulton in his Hand- 
list of the Birds of Borneo! and give exact details of the first 
collector of each Sumatran species. Work in Sumatra dates 
from an earlier period than in Borneo and the greater part of 
the details, even where they exist, which is by no means always 
the case, are buried in Dutch and French periodicals that are 
not accessible to us. 
We have, therefore, contented ourselves with giving the 
reference to the name adopted for each species. This is by 
no means always the first description as earlier names are often 
untenable for one reason or another. 
It will be seen that the present list comprises 527 names, 
while Borneo has 555 species and the Malay Peninsula about 
630. Taking into account the fact that the marine and 
littoral species are not very well known from Sumatra, while 
migratory species are by no means well represented, it will 
probably be found that the island is inhabited by well over 600 
species, so that its fauna is relatively decidedly richer than 
that of Borneo (which is of very much greater area), though 
it does not contain so many markedly differentiated forms. 
t Journ. Straits Branch, Roy. Asiat. Soc., No. 67, pp. 125-191, (1914). 
Expedition to Korinchi: 
