INTRODUCTION.

for

considerably to its importance; and in 1872 Dr. Jerdon himself contributed a series of supplementary
notes to the last-mentioned journal: these have been duly recorded in a second edition of the ‘Birds
of India,’ published under the superintendence of Colonel Godwin-Austen. A very interesting MS,
work by the late Colonel Tickell, with beautifully painted pictures of Indian birds, has also been
presented to the library of the Zoological Society.

If, however, Indian ornithology is indebted to an incalculable extent to the labours of Blyth and Jerdon,
there is at least one naturalist whose claim to equal rank with the above-named pioneers will be admitted
by every future historian of the subject. This is Mr. A. O. Hume, who for the past fifteen years
has worthily trod in the footsteps of his renowned predecessors; and one cannot but regret that
neither Blyth nor Jerdon have survived to see the results of their early studies as pushed towards such
a brilliant conclusion by Mr. Hume. To attempt to write on Indian birds without consulting the
pages of ‘Stray Feathers,’ which is the curiously chosen title of Mr. Hume’s journal, would be as
impossible as for any one to essay to write a history of Neotropical birds without referring to the
works of Dr. Sclater or Mr. Salvin. Suffice it to say that Mr. Hume has succeeded in interesting
a large number of ardent naturalists in a study of the birds of India; and although he has been
singularly fortunate in the number and calibre of his coadjutors, the credit of the extraordinary
advance which the study of Indian ornithology has made during the last twelve years is mainly due
to the energy of Mr. Hume himself. Not only does his journal contain useful lists of species from
various parts of the Indian peninsula, but important essays will be found therein on the ornithology of
Yarkand, Afghanistan, Sindh, Tenasserim (occupying an entire volume of 524 pages), and the Malayan
peninsula. In England, too, considerable energy has been shown in the study of Indian ornithology.
Besides the uninterrupted issue of the ‘Birds of Asia,’ this country was indebted to the late Marquis
of Tweeddale for many of the most valuable memoirs ever written on birds. His large collections
and his intimate knowledge of ornithological literature rendered him the first authority on Asiatic
ornithology in this country; and _ his untimely death was mourned by the entire scientific world.

The islands in the Bay of Bengal have been thoroughly explored on Mr. Hume’s behalf by Mr. W.
Davison, probably one of the best collectors that science has ever known; and it is to this same gentleman

that we are indebted for the successful ornithological results in Tenasserim and the Malayan peninsula.

Captain Wardlaw Ramsay has also largely contributed to our knowledge of the avifauna of the Andaman