52 
President's Address. 
[Feb. 
wn.mjmw.taJ in Dr . Jerdon's Birds of India, the Assamese, B— 
and Ceylonese forms not being included. 
172 the VOlUm r, ° n the ? irdS 0f T " erim > a goodly fasciculus of 
PrL w A ap P ea ™ d - devoted t0 ™ious Indian Ornithological subjects. 
Travi ore ” 7Z , ^ ™ “ * SeC ° nd list of the birds °£ Southern 
a ancore a region quite as interesting as Tenasserim, and until recently 
equally neglected, as least so far as its birds were concerned. Some impor 
tern & T d T t0 *** avi ' fauna ° f desert country in Wes- 
ein India although it is to he hoped that such species as Rutlilla meso- 
leuca and lamus aunculatus will not be included in the Birds of India 
evidence^ 11 ' ° CCU1TenCe Within tbe limits has been trifled on unquestionable 
worIc C of ^ gge ’ S ‘ Hist0r ^ of tbe of Ceylon’ is a most important 
T • ! T 1 C A°“ e quart0 part ooofedoiog 347 pages has already appeared. 
I am imlehted t ° IMr. Hume for an opportunity of seeing an early copy 
ot this part, the only copy, I believe, that has reached India, and I can only 
endorse his opinion that it is the best work of the kind devoted to Indian 
Zoology that has appeared. Carefully and systematically arranged, very 
much on the model of Dresser’s ‘Birds of Europe,’ containing ample de¬ 
scriptions of plumage, habits, distribution, and nidification, it is still free 
trom excessive discursiveness, and the plates, in which most of the species 
peculiar to Ceylon are represented, are excellent. The present part contains 
the Accipitres, Psittaci and Picarice. 
Tnrl . Tt 1 " alm ° St to ° 80011 to h °P e for a similar book on the birds of all 
r iV d SUCh a W01 'k be P r0( i u ced, there are, I would suirs-est two 
z th ;‘ wonld ~ “■ <■ ^ C; «f 
addition of rtf ° fc f eSe ” a key t0 the genera and s P ecies ’ the other the 
.uohaethlbdtSXZlt giVi, ‘ Sde “‘ ° f 
AnHoLrAAA 7 b ° the faVOurite “ological study of so many 
that derdoo, . Bird, of India- « he a £ | e 7"S 
of tt,' h ?°? seb& . 1§ber ments > an d it is unquestionable that the existence 
o h„ book ha, aided greatly in fo.t.ring a tat. for ornithology. B „tZ 
classification adopted by Jerdon was anthprated and obsolete, e™„ when hi 
i” k " S P ?>? e Z ““ ™ T * m P°rtant advances have been nj” 
knowledge ot the affinities of the ration, families since it appeared s“h 
at the present day there is really no excuse for snob 
tanTmZrJ^":”'British*,, h. added 
