A L L A N HUME.
SIMLA, \st July 1879.
SUPPLEMENTARY PREFACE.
—-s*s®<
F E W words of explanation are due from me to
our readers to account for the anomaly of a
work whose cover bears the name of two
authors being written by only one of these.
A work like this, however, can only (if it is
_ to form a consistent whole") be acfuallv wrinpn
(Slip to face page 2 of the Prefiut.)
T O T H E R E A D E R .
As we hope, hereafter, to publish an improved and revised
edition of this work, we shall be grateful for any scraps of information,
liowever small, that any one, into whose hands " T H E
GAME BIRDS" may fall, may be able to furnish us, supplementary
to what we have herein recorded, in regard to the Vernacular
names, distribution, habits, food, notes, nidification, &c,
&c, of any one of the species included in this work.
No doubt we have fallen into many errors, possibly we may
have omitted some species ; any one pointing out such errors
or omissions will confer a great favour on us.
Letters may at all times be addressed to me to " RotJiney,
SIMLA ;" wherever I may, at the moment, chance to be, such
letters, if I am still in the land of the living, will always be
promptly forwarded to me.
ALLAN HUME.
ceeded to England, and arranged for the preparation" of
the plates, and partly because with the explanation thus
afforded no one can justly misconstrue my action.
C. H. T. M A R S H A L L.
names of species (often misspelt), and the colours of the
soft parts, the text and not the plates must be relied on.
Yet in this matter of the plates, indifferent as the
results may seem, Captain Marshall took an infinity of
pains, and but for his labours this work could never have
appeared.
The text, for which Mr. Hume is mainly responsible,
is likewise by no means what he would have wished to
make it. A work like this requires leisure ; time to
consult all that has ever been written by others in regard
to each species; time to weld all this together with
personal and unpublished experiences into a harmonious
whole ; time to re-write, revise and polish. As it is,
amidst the pressure of other work of all kinds, Mr. Hume
has only been able to jot down roughly his own
experiences, supplementing these by such notes of others,
published and unpublished, as he chanced to have
available.
The printing, too, had necessarily to be done in India,
and though extremely good for this country, cannot
compare in finish and general appearance with similar
work turned out at home, where sheets, as printed, can
be passed between hot rollers, giving a gloss and finish
to the pages impossible to be attained in any other
manner.
But the Authors' case is simply this : the work is one
much wanted and long called for ; no one else appeared
willing to incur the trouble and great expense involved
in its preparation. Indifferent as it is, whether from an
artistic or literary point of view, it will yet, it is
believed, enable sportsmen to identify every game bird
they may shoot, and ascertain something of its distribution
in India and elsewhere, of the places in which it
may be sought, and of its habits, food, and nidification
so far as these are yet known, and after all, imperfect
as it may be, it is the best that, circumstanced as they
have been, the Authors could possibly produce.