

INTRODUCTION. 7 



through native Burmah. The ornithology of Cochin China is well represented in the Paris Museum ; 

 and Dr. Tiraud has published a useful list of the birds of that country. 



With the ornithology of China the name of the late Consul Swinhoe will be inseparably connected. 

 Numerous contributions from his pen were published in * The Ibis ; ' and two complete lists of the 

 birds of China were issued in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society' for 1863 and 1871 

 respectively. In 1877, however, a very complete work on Chinese ornithology appeared from the 

 pens of Abbe David and Dr. Oustalet, whose book, entitled * Les Oiseaux de la Chine,' embodies 

 not only Mr. Swinhoe's discoveries, but likewise the results of the travels of Abbe David throughout 

 China as well as those of Colonel Prjewalsky in Mongolia and Thibet. A complete account of the 

 ornithological observations made by the latter traveller was also translated from the Russian, and 

 published in the late Mr. Dawson Rowley's ' Ornithological Miscellany.' 



We may here remark on the explorations of Dr. Dybowski and other Russian travellers in the region 

 of Lake Baikal and Eastern Siberia, a synopsis of which has been written by Dr. Taczanowski in the 

 'Bulletin' of the French Zoological Society. As regards Japan, there appeared in 1850 the beautiful 

 illustrated work on the Fauna Japonica by Temminck and Schlegel, wherein are seen some fine 

 pictures of birds, some of them drawn by Professor Schlegel himself, while others are early examples 

 of that great zoological draughtsman Joseph Wolf. After that but little was written on the ornithology of 

 the Japanese Islands until 1867, when a list of the birds collected by Mr. Henry Whitely (since 

 celebrated for his explorations in Peru and Guiana) appeared in ' The Ibis ;' but more recently two 

 good field-naturalists, Captain Blakiston and Mr. H. Pryer, have published a list of the Birds of 

 Japan ; and Mr. Seebohm has also devoted some attention to the ornithology of this part of Asia. 



Lastly we have to consider the ornithology of the Indo-Malayan subregion. In 1854 a list of 

 the birds of Malacca collected by Dr. Cantor was commenced by Mr. F. Moore; but the best 

 accounts of the birds of the Malayan peninsula are those of Mr. Hume in ' Stray Feathers' (founded 

 on the collections made by Mr. Davison in the western half of the peninsula), and of Lieut. 

 Kelham in 'The Ibis/ Mr. Davison has proved by his researches that many of the Malayan birds 

 range into Southern Tenasserim ; and it is much to be regretted that this energetic collector has 

 been disabled by the state of his health from exploring the eastern half of the Malayan peninsula, 

 which is zoologically absolutely unknown. It will remain for some future explorer, therefore, to 





