VI 
PREFACE. 
British Museum, Mr. Charles Chubb, I have checked every one of the 
references quoted in this hook— nearly seventeen thousand in number ! 
The labour involved in this work will be appreciated by any one who 
is accustomed to “verify his references.” In my desire to make the 
book as useful as possible I have gone further and have put in a 
number of extra synonyms from popular works, such, for instance, as 
Oates’s £ Birds of British India,’ which in a few years will have fami¬ 
liarized Indian naturalists and sportsmen with a certain set of names 
which do not occur in Gould’s works, though the species may be duly 
figured therein. 
Thus, for instance, The Eulvous-fronted Suthora ( Suthora fulvifrons) 
occurs in the ‘ Birds of Asia,’ vol. iii. pi. 71. Oates calls these birds 
“Crow-Tits,” and the above-named species is the “Eulvous-fronted 
Crow-Tit ” of his * Fauna of British India,’ Birds, vol. i. p. 66. I have 
therefore placed “ Crow-Tit ” in the present Index, in case any one, 
remembering the bird’s English name, might have forgotten the Latin 
title. 
Again, in the ‘ Birds of Asia,’ vol. v. pi. 52, Gould figures :— 
Crypsirhina cucullata. The Hooded Crypsirhina. 
This is the “ Hooded Backet-tailed Magpie ” of Oates’s book (Eaun. 
Brit. Ind., Birds, i. p. 35), so I have added the latter names in the e Index.’ 
It might have been better, perhaps, to have printed such names as are 
thus added in brackets or in a different type; but this notion did 
not occur to me until too late, and it must be remembered that this 
‘ Index ’ was not primarily written for scientific men, but for people 
who own a set of Gould’s works, and who want to find a particular 
plate in the series, as was the case with Lord Wharncliffe and Lord 
Walsingham in the instance alluded to at the commencement of the 
“ Preface.” It is therefore incumbent upon me to give a 
Warning to Ornithologists 
to verify their references, and to look up the original quotations, after 
consulting the present work. I trust that they will find all the 
