visit this dangerous and unknown region, when, as an ornithological result, it will doubtless be
discovered that many species inhabiting the Eastern Himalayas and the hills of Burmah and Tenassernn
extend their range to the mountains of Java and Sumatra along the elevated ridge which forms
the backbone of the Malayan peninsula.
For our knowledge of the ornithology of Sumatra we are still mainly dependent upon the collections
of the old Dutch travellers, Solomon Muller and others, who penetrated the mouutain-ranges of
the island; if we except the successful expedition made by Dr. Beccari in 1878, and- the more
recent researches of Mr. H. O. Forbes, lately recorded by Mr. F. Nicholson. The collections made
near the coast, such as those of the late Mr. E. C. Buxton in Lampong, mainly resulted in the
procuring of common Malayan and Bornean forms.
But little has been written on the ornithology of Java. Horsfield s list of the birds procured
by him, and subsequent observations by Dr. Bernstein, Mr. H. O. Forbes, and Mr. Vordeman
comprise nearly all we know of the ornithology of the island; but rich collections are contained in
the Leiden Museum, and the British Museum likewise possesses a good series prepared by Mr. Wallace,
and by no means the least valuable result of that naturalist’s expedition to the East.
With the ornithology of Borneo we are much better acquainted, thanks to the excellent work
of Count Salvador'], the ‘ Uccelli di Borneo,’ which contains a complete record of the avifauna of
the island up to the year 1874. Since that date Mr. Alfred Everett and his brother Mr. Henry
Everett in Sarawak, Mr. Hugh Low and the late Governor Ussher in Labuan and the provinces
of Brunei and Lumbidan, and Mr. W. B. Pryer in Sandakan, have added greatly to our knowledge
of the birds of Borneo, and have shown that the relations of its avifauna are mostly with that of
Sumatra and the Malayan peninsula, that few forms are peculiar to the island, and that it receives a
considerable migratory influx of Siberian and Eastern Asiatic forms which make Borneo their winter
home.
Our knowledge of the avifauna of the Philippine Islands has also been vastly increased since Mr.
Gould commenced the present work. Matiy species had been recorded by Sonnerat and the older
writers; but their accounts were often confused and meagre, and it was not till the late Mr.
Cuming had visited the archipelago that British ornithologists received any definite and trustworthy
information respecting the birds of the Philippine Islands. The Prussian expedition to Eastern Asia
I N T R O D U C T I O N . y
resulted in the publication of a list of Philippine birds by Dr. von Martens, which, however, was
not very satisfactory; but the explorations of Dr. A. B. Meyer were of more enduring importance,
as it was principally on his collections that the excellent memoir on the Birds of the Philippine
Archipelago by the Marquis of Tweeddale was founded. Following closely upon this, we ourselves
published a list of the birds obtained by Dr. Steere, who visited many of the islands on which no
naturalist had before set foot, and whose collections contained a large number of new forms. Perhaps
the most interesting result of Dr. Steere’s expedition was the demonstration that the Philippine Island
of Palawan possessed a distinct Bornean and, therefore, Malayan element—a result which has been
amply confirmed by Mr. Alfred Everett in the same island. The latter naturalist was sent by Lord
Tweeddale; and his expedition has proved to be one of the most important ever undertaken in the
Indian region. Like Dr. Steere he also visited many islands uot before trodden by an ornithologist,
and obtained a large number of beautiful novelties.
Such is a brief retrospect, as far as our experience allows us to make it, of the progress of oriental
ornithology since the year 1850, when Mr. Gould issued his first part. Every one must admit that
it would be far easier now to attempt such a work, although so vast is the extent of the Indian
region that each year records a large increase in our knowledge of Asiatic birds. It would almost seem
as if we had now once more reached a period of quiescence, such as supervened upon the publication
of Horsfield and Moore’s ‘ Catalogue,’ and Jerdon’s | Birds of India.’ Let us hope that this is not
the case, and that Mr. Hume, who has done so much for the increase of our knowledge of Indian
birds, will not allow his pen to remain dry, that Colonel Godwin-Austen will, on the termination of
his present important work on Mollusca, be induced to give us a connected catalogue of the birds
of North-eastern Bengal, that Captain Wardlaw Ramsay will publish a catalogue of the Tweeddale
collection, and that Mr. Blanford will not allow his retirement from India to interfere with the
publication of his useful works on the zoology of that portion of the globe.
R. BOWDLER SHARPE.