Preface 
and Hume’s Game Birds of India, Burmah, and 
Ceylon, with its large number of coloured 
plates. This valuable work is out of print ; but 
a copy is to be found in almost every Indian 
library. Then there is Stuart Baker’s recently 
published Indian Ducks and their Allies, which 
contains excellent coloured plates of all Indian 
ducks. Those who cannot afford to purchase 
this sumptuous work have in Finn’s How to 
know the Indian Ducks, a safe and inexpensive 
guide. The same author’s How to know the 
Indian Waders, enables the tyro to identify 
any dead wader. Lastly, there is Le Mes- 
surier’s Game, Shore, and Water Birds of India; 
but this, I fear, will be found rather technical 
for most people. I think I have stated suffi- 
ciently clearly my reasons for excluding the 
majority of game birds from the present work. 
It now remains for me to justify the other 
omissions. 
In order to render it comparatively easy to 
identify any given bird, it is necessary that 
the various classes shall not be too large, and 
the only way of securing this desideratum is to 
exclude all the birds that are not frequently 
met with. 
Some may think that I have omitted certain 
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