I N T R O D U C T I O N .
4
the Caspian. This work on Eastern Persia also contains an account of the collections made by
Sir Oliver St. John daring his residence near Shiraz. When we come to Afghanistan we have the
excellent observations of Captain Hutton on the Birds of Kandahar, published in 1845 and 1846. and
the more scattered notices of the collections made by Dr. Samuel Griffith in the same country, as
recorded by Messrs. Horsiield and Moore in their ‘ Catalogue of the Birds in the Museum of the East
India Company.1 Besides these there are some excellent papers by Colonel Swinhoe, Captain Wardlaw
Ramsay, and Serjeant Barnes, giving an account of the birds observed by them during the last
Afghan war.
As regards British India, we have already alluded to the state of its ornithological record np to
the year 1850, when the labours of Blyth and Jerdon had done so much to prepare the way for
the successful issue which has since uninterruptedly followed. Ceylon appears to have been the next
place to be explored by working ornithologists; and Mr. E. L. Layard contributed in 1853
some very interesting notes on the birds of that country, supplementary to the catalogue published
by Dr. Kelaart in bis ■ Prodromus Faun* Ze,Ionic*.’ But in the year 1854 a most important work on
Indian ornithology was issued, which we consider to have had a great effect upon the recent studies
of ornithologists. This was the ‘ Catalogue of the Birds in the Museum of the East India Company,’
a work which bears on its title-page the names of Dr. Horsiield and Mr. F. Moore, but Which
is known to have been prepared entirely by the last-named naturalist. The importance of this
Catalogue consists in the fact that it gathers together into one compass all the scattered literature
of Indian birds which existed up to that period, and is especially valuable as containing a connected list
of references to Mr. Blyth’s papers spread over many volumes of the Asiatic Society’s ‘ Journal.’ It must
therefore never be forgotten that in that year ornithologists possessed for the first time a nearly complete
literature of Indian birds, as far as the Accipitres, Passeres, and Picarim are concerned. A lull then
appears to have taken place in Indian ornithology, broken only by occasional papers from Mr. Blyth,
Colonel Tickell, and other field-naturalists, until the year 1862, when Dr. Jerdon brought out the
first volume of his ‘ Birds of India.’ This book, which was published in three octavo volumes, was
completed in 1864; and, equally by naturalists at home as by field-ornithologists in India, it has been
recognized as the standard work on Indian ornithology. Many years must elapse before its utility
will be impaired; and it is certain that every one writing on the birds of India has J o take
Jerdon’s book as his starting-point. Mr. Blyth's able critique on this book in 'The Ibis’ added
I N T R O D U C T I O N . 5
considerably to its importance; and in 187*2 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. Flume’s journal, would be as
impossible a any one to essay to write a history of Neotropical birds without referring to the
works of Dr. Sclater or Mr. Salviu. 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 bis journal coutain 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