INTRODUCTION. 
No attempt has ever been mad e to write a connected and detailed account 
of the Birds of British Burmah. This is hardly to be wondered at_, when 
it is remembered that a larger and much better-known portion of the Indian 
Empire^ the Peninsula of India itself_, has found but one historian for its 
birds_, and twenty years have passed since Dr. Jerdon wrote his useful 
workj the ' Birds of India/ Whatever the merits of a work of this nature 
may be, the lapse of twenty years, with the progress and discoveries made 
during that period, must necessarily detract from its usefulness at the 
present time; and it is to be regretted that none of the several ornitho- 
logists competent for such a task should have attempted a fresh history 
of the birds of Peninsular India. 
The only other work dealing with the ornithology of the Indian Region 
is Major Legge's ' History of the Birds of Ceylon/ 
It is therefore evident that there is abundant room for works on the 
Avifauna of India ; and, as a contribution to the subject, I have ventured 
to write the present ^ Handbook ^ to the birds of one of the most interesting 
portions of the Empire. 
The number of birds dealt with by me is little short of the total number 
included by Dr. Jerdon in his ' Birds of India ] and had I written this 
' Handbook ' two or three years hence, there is reason to believe that 
the total number of birds would have amounted to fully the same as 
Dr. Jerdon^ s, viz. one thousand. 
The first ornithologist who attempted to work Burmah was the late 
Colonel Tickell. His field of work lay in Tenasserim, chiefly among the 
higher hills and mountains to the east of Moulmein, culminating in the 
peak of Mooleyit, which rises about 6000 feet above sea-level. His disco- 
veries and observations were very valuable ; but unfortunately the latter 
