xvi INTRODUCTION. 
are scattered throughout several volumes of the ' Journal of the Asiatic 
Society o£ Bengal ' and other periodicals,, and it is not easy to consult 
them. But he was as clever with his brush as with his pen; and he 
occupied himself during many years of his life in making a very complete 
record of his observations on Indian and Burmese birds^ which is now 
deposited in the library of the Zoological Society of London. This work 
consists of seven volumes ; and many of the more interesting birds are very 
beautifully drawn and coloured by his own hand. Not the least inte- 
resting part of these volumes are the amusing sketches at the end of the 
chapters, depicting familiar scenes of Indian native rural life. It is to be 
hoped that this unique and valuable work may eventually be published. 
The late Mr. Blyth, after assuming charge of the Museum of the Asiatic 
Society of Bengal, in Calcutta, turned his attention to Burmese birds, and 
found willing contributors in Capt. (now Sir Arthur) Phayre, the late 
Major Berdmore, Dr. Mason, and others. Mr. Blyth^s writings are to be 
found in nearly every volume of the Society's Journal. He contributed to 
^ The Ibis ' several important papers, the result of his more matured 
experience ; and his useful labours culminated just before his death in a 
Catalogue of Burmese birds, which was published, under the editorship of 
the late Lord Tweeddale, in 1875, in the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
Bengal.-' Mr. Blyth may justly be called the father of Indian ornithology. 
Mr. Bryan Hodgson was not directly connected with Burmese orni- 
thology; but so many of the birds he discovered and wrote about in 
Nipal are found in Burmah that his name will be found on nearly every 
page of the present work. Mr. Hodgson must share with Mr. Blyth the 
honour of being the pioneer of Indian ornithology. The enormous col- 
lections he formed in Nipal are now deposited in the British Museum. 
Dr. Jerdon concerned himself little with Burmah; in fact he excluded 
the Province from the range of his book on the Birds of India ; but he 
has furnished us with much useful information regarding Burmese birds 
in his work, and his volumes were no doubt the cause of many taking up 
the pursuit of birds who would otherwise have neglected it. His work 
will remain for all time the text-book of Indian ornithologists. 
Dr. Mason, the venerated missionary, spent nearly all his life in Burmah, 
and was much addicted to the pursuit of natural science. As he him- 
self modestly informed me, a year or two before his death, he was no 
scientific ornithologist ; but he nevertheless wrote, with Mr. Blyth's 
