VI 
PREFACE. 
behalf. On his return to England in 1877 it only remained for the author to combine his 
acquired knowledge of the life-history of the birds of Ceylon with a comparison of his 
collection (the largest ever made by one individual in the island) with series of specimens and 
skins in the British Museum and the collections of brother ornithologists in London, illustrative 
of the ornis of adjacent countries ; and after three years of incessant labour the work has been 
brought to a conclusion. 
A non-residence in London, within daily reach of the libraries, with their stores of ornitho- 
logical literature, and the collections with which that great civilizing centre teems, has been a 
serious disadvantage to the author. Furthermore the vast amount of correspondence and 
supervision which the publication of the work entailed on him was much increased by his 
residence at a distance from those engaged in its printing and illustration. The scientific reader 
will therefore, it is to be hoped, pardon the various shortcomings which the author feels must, 
on this account, exist throughout the work. 
Its mission, however, is not to impart knowledge to the scientific ornithologist in Europe, 
for it cannot pretend to any such degree of merit ; it is intended purely as a text-book for the 
local student and collector in Ceylon ; and though the author has as yet met with comparatively 
little suppoit among the class for which he has worked so hard, yet if he succeeds in inculcating 
in the minds of only a few of the inhabitants of Ceylon a taste for the study of birds, which he 
apprehends must always rank foremost among the wonderful creations of an all-wise and 
bountiful Providence, his labour of love will not have been in vain. On the other hand, 
while his sincerest gratitude is evoked by the patronage which the Royal Family have been 
graciously pleased to bestow upon his humble labours, the author cannot but tender his 
best thanks to his friends and the general public in England for the cordial manner in which 
they have supported him. 
Aberystwith, September 2 , 1880 . 
W. V. LEGGE, 
Captain B.A. 
