INTRODUCTION. 
xvii 
assistance^ I think, a most useful catalogue of the Birds of Burmah in his 
^Burmah; its People and Natural Productions/ This catalogue was for 
years, and is still, much consulted by residents in Burmah. 
The late Marquess of Tweeddale, first under the name of Lord Arthur 
Hay, and subsequently under that of Lord Walden, devoted himself 
especially to the ornithology of India and South-eastern Asia. Burmah 
was fortunate in occupying his attention. His numerous valuable papers 
on ornithology have been collected •together and published in one volume, 
edited by Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay. 
Turning now to those who are engaged in active work in connexion 
with Burmese ornithology, I come to a small band of hard-working field- 
naturalists. Mr. Allan Hume in his study, and Mr. William Davison, 
his curator, in the field, have for many years past actively worked Tenas- 
serim. The critical remarks of the former and the field-notes of the 
latter enrich every page of my work ; and my task could not have been 
satisfactorily performed had this portion of Burmah not received that 
attention from them which it has . 
Capt. R. G. Wardlaw Ramsay, during a few years'* military service in 
Burmah, explored a considerable portion of Pegu, and furnished the 
Marquess of Tweeddale with valuable materials for criticism. His visit 
to Karennee, rich in results, has enabled me to add that outlying State to 
the area I have dealt with. Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay has kindly furnished 
me with a short note of his travels in Karennee, and I reproduce it below. 
Other workers in the field of Burmese ornithology are : — Mr. W. T. Blan- 
ford, who wrote a list of the species procured by him in the Irrawaddy 
valley, published in ' The Ibis ' for 1870 ; Capt. Feilden, who supplied 
Mr. Hume with some of the materials for his paper on the birds of Upper 
Pegu, published in ' Stray Feathers,'' vol. iii. ; Dr. Armstrong, who 
explored the Irrawaddy Delta, and published the results in vol. iv. of 
that periodical ; Capt. Bingham, of the Forest Department, who for some 
years explored that little-known portion of Tenasserim comprised in the 
Thoungyeen valley, and whose papers will be found in vols. viii. and ix. 
of Stray Feathers the late Colonel Lloyd, Deputy Commissioner of 
Tonghoo, who collected birds in the north-east portion of Pegu ; the late 
Captain Beavan, who resided for a short period at Moulmein, and was a 
devoted worker at ornithology ; Mr. Olive and Mr. de Wet, of the Police 
Department, who from time to time kindly collected specimens for me in 
b 
