NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 151 



of numerous papers in the now discontinued but valuable Indian 

 Journal of Ornithology, ' Stray Feathers.' 



We learn from the Editor's Preface that the number of 

 species of birds to be described in three volumes, of which this 

 is the first, exceeds those enumerated in Jerdon's 'Birds of 

 India,' by more than one half, chiefly because Jerdon omitted the 

 species inhabiting Ceylon, Sind west of the Indus, the Western 

 Punjab, Hazara, the Upper Indus Valley, north and north-west 

 of Cashmir, Assam, Burma, and the intermediate countries 

 (such as the Garo, Khasi, and Naga Hills, Chittagong, Sylhet, 

 Cachar, and Manipur), together with Andaman and Nicobar 

 Islands, all of which are comprised within the limits of British 

 India as accepted in the present publication. A large number of 

 additional species have also been recorded, since Jerdon's work 

 was published, from Sind, the Punjab, the North Western 

 Provinces, Bajputana, and the Western Himalayas, the fauna of 

 all of which has become better known within the last twenty-five 

 years. The additional species from the Peninsula are far 

 less numerous. 



It would be scarcely possible to have better material than 

 that which now exists for the preparation of a new work on the 

 Birds of British India ; for besides the very numerous contribu- 

 tions to Indian Ornithology which have been published since the 

 date of Jerdon's work, the finest collection in the world of Indian 

 Birds is now to be found at the British Museum. Here during 

 the last few years the private collections of Messrs. Hume 

 (60,000 birdskins), Gould, and the late Marquis of Tweeddale, 

 have been added to those of Col. Sykes and Mr. Hodgson, 

 of Nepal ; so that in all probability there is not a single species 

 of which there are not some, perhaps several, specimens avail- 

 able for examination. Under these circumstances it was evident 

 :hat the work now in hand could only be completed in London, 

 and it is fortunate for ornithological science that Mr. Oates has 

 been able to arrange for a prolonged stay in England in order to 

 rork uninterruptedly at the British Museum. 



Looking at the first instalment of his publication now before 

 us, the first thing that strikes us is an alteration in the scheme 

 of classification to which of late years we have become accus- 

 tomed, and in which the family Turdidce, in the Order Passeres, 

 has headed the Class Aves. Mr. Oates prefers to commence 



