INTRODUCTION. 



During the fifteen years which have elapsed since I wrote the last Part of the ' Birds of Europe ' 

 much has been done in working up the avifauna of Europe. Not only have many species which 

 were then unknown and undescribed been found to inhabit the Canary Islands, but in Eastern 

 and South-eastern Europe especially new workers have come forward who have added largely 

 to the number of species known to inhabit the Western Palsearctic Area. Russia especially has 

 come to the front, for when I wrote the ' Birds of Europe ' the only work on the ornithology of 

 Russia was Kessler's ' Russkaya Ornitologia,' which, being in Russian, was a closed book to most 

 European ornithologists, whereas now, thanks to the industry of Messrs. Bogdanoif, Bianchi, 

 Menzbier, Pleske, Radde, Zarudny, and others, we know almost as much of the ornithology of 

 Russia as of other European countries ; and when Mr. Pleske's excellent work ' Ornithographia 

 Rossica ' is completed Russia will be able to boast of a work fully equal to that on the ornithology 

 of any European country. Unfortunately, owing to the weak health of Mr. Pleske, only one 

 volume, containing the Sylviinse, has been issued ; but other Russian ornithologists, of whom 

 there are now several excellent ones at work, will certainly continue the work so ably begun by 

 Mr. Pleske, should he himself be unable to do so. 



The result of the labours of these Russian ornithologists has convinced me, however, that I 

 was wrong in fixing the south-eastern limits of the Western Palgearctic Area as I then did, for 

 they have shown that almost all the species found in the Persian Province occur also in South- 

 eastern Russia, and I have therefore found it necessary to enlarge the area in that direction and 

 to include the whole of the elevated plateau of Persia. The eastern boundary I then adopted 

 consisted of the Ural range of mountains and river down to the mouth of the Ural River, taking 

 an imaginary line from thence along the eastern shores of the Caspian to the frontiers of 

 Persia, thence across to the Euphrates, and southward along the borders of the Arabian Desert, 

 so as to include Syria and Arabia Petrsea, down to the Red Sea, but excluding the Jordan valley, 

 the fauna of which is essentially Ethiopian. Now, however, I find that I must adopt as the 



