Xliv INTRODUCTION. 



native artists, very much inferior, however, to those of 

 Buchanan Hamilton, were collected by the late Sir A. Burnes, 

 in Sindh, the Punjab, and Afghanistan. These are, also, in 

 the Asiatic Society's Library, and, however inferior as works 

 of art, are valuable, as showing the distribution of many 

 birds, and also for the addition of a few new species. In 

 1844, I published a selection of fifty coloured litho- 

 graphs, chiefly of unfigured birds of Southern India 

 (" Illustrations of Indian Ornithology") ; and the excellence 

 and faithfulness of the drawings (the originals of all of 

 which were painted by natives, and half the number, also, 

 lithographed and coloured at Madras) has been universally 

 allowed. Very many friends who have watched the progress 

 of this work with interest, have expressed their earnest 

 wish that it could have been accompanied by some Illus- 

 trative plates similar to those of the book alluded to. To 

 have done this would have added so much to the cost of 

 the work and, delayed its publication, that I was obliged 

 to forego the advantages that might have accrued ; but I 

 am in hopes that I may, hereafter, be enabled to publish a 

 Supplementary volume of Illustrations, giving one figure 

 of a bird of each sub-family, and details of the chief genera. 

 A few details as to the plan I have followed in the fol- 

 lowing pages are here given. 



I have avoided encumbering my work with numerous 

 synonyms ; but I have always quoted Blyth's and 

 Horsfield's Catalogues, in both of which the reader will 

 find the synonyms given at length ; and I have, invariably 

 cited such names as have been bestowed by Indian 

 Ornithologists. I have also quoted Sykes' Catalogue, and 

 my own, but none of the others, though I have fre- 

 quently alluded to them in the descriptions. I have also 

 given a reference to the best coloured figure extant ; and, 



