INDIAN BIRDS

PREFACE

I fear that the patience of those who have been awaiting this little book must be well-nigh exhausted, so long has it been in appearing. I began it two years ago, but had to put it aside during the last few months spent in India prior to taking furlough, on account of the heavy work the threatening famine entailed; and when one is on furlough one only works at the rare times when there is nothing better to do!

The object of this book is to enable people interested in our Indian birds to identify at sight those they are likely to meet with in their compounds and during their excursions into the jungle.

There are several good systematic works on Indian ornithology, but the descriptions in these presuppose that the reader has the specimen in his hand and is able to examine it leisurely, feather by feather. To do this it is necessary to kill the bird in question—a procedure which causes pain to many and gives pleasure to very few. Moreover, unless the seeker after knowledge has some notion as to the order to which the bird he has shot belongs, he will find that seeking it out in the four bird volumes of the Fauna of British India series is a task almost as hopeless as that of looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Eha’s truly admirable book, entitled The Common Birds of Bombay, gives the reader a vivid description of our common Indian birds as they appear to the field naturalist; and I heartily commend this little masterpiece to every Anglo-Indian. But even this does not enable the observer to identify in a few seconds any bird he sees, for it is not written in the form of a key. The present book is an attempt at a key to the everyday birds of the plains of India, a dictionary of birds so arranged that the budding ornithologist is able to turn up any particular bird in a few minutes. This book is, I believe, the first of its kind that has been attempted.

The method I have adopted is to classify birds according to their habits and outward appearance. Every bird has a colour, and most birds possess some anatomical peculiarity, such as a crest, a long tail, long legs, etc. Not a few have some easily recognisable habit, such as a peculiar call or manner of flight. Thus most birds will appear in at least two of my classes, and so should be easily identified by a process of elimination. When the reader thinks that he has located a bird he should turn it up in the descriptive list, which composes Part II of this book, and this will serve to confirm or correct him in his identification. Thus, to take a very easy example, the observer while out walking sees a white bird with a long tail, and a black crested head. Looking through the lists of birds under (1) those having long tails; (2) those having a crest; (3) those mainly white, he will find that the Paradise Flycatcher is the only bird that appears in all three lists. Its number in the descriptive list is (57). A perusal of entry No. 57 will confirm the diagnosis, and indicate where illustrations of the bird are to be found.

I venture to hope that this little book will enable any person to learn in a few weeks to identify nearly all the common birds of his station.

The descriptions given in Part II of the book are short ones, and each is an attempt to depict the bird as it looks when perched in a tree or during flight. Sometimes the description given may appear to differ from those given in The Fauna of British India, or in Jerdon’s Birds of India. The reason of the apparent discrepancy is that the descriptions of the birds in these latter books are those of the skins of dead birds, while mine are attempts to depict the bird as he appears in the flesh.

In a few cases I have described birds from memory, and sometimes my memory may have played me false. I shall be most grateful to anyone who will be kind enough to point out to me any errors. One of the greatest of the difficulties I have experienced is to know what birds to insert and what to leave out of this book. It is a key only to the common birds of the plains, and deals with about one-fifth of the feathered inhabitants.

I have purposely omitted the game birds from my list. These are usually shot at sight; it is therefore not necessary for me to burden this book with them. There is no lack of good books that enable the sportsman to identify the birds he has shot. I may mention Marshall and Hume’s Game Birds of India, Burmah, and Ceylon, with its large number of coloured plates. This valuable work is out of print; but a copy is to be found in almost every Indian library. Then there is Stuart Baker’s recently published Indian Ducks and their Allies, which contains excellent coloured plates of all Indian ducks. Those who cannot afford to purchase this sumptuous work have in Finn’s How to know the Indian Ducks, a safe and inexpensive guide. The same author’s How to know the Indian Waders, enables the tyro to identify any dead wader. Lastly, there is Le Messurier’s Game, Shore, and Water Birds of India; but this, I fear, will be found rather technical for most people. I think I have stated sufficiently clearly my reasons for excluding the majority of game birds from the present work. It now remains for me to justify the other omissions.

In order to render it comparatively easy to identify any given bird, it is necessary that the various classes shall not be too large, and the only way of securing this desideratum is to exclude all the birds that are not frequently met with.

Some may think that I have omitted certain species that should have been included. In anticipation of such criticism I may say that I have done my best to deal impartially with my feathered friends. I have served in three provinces, viz. the United Provinces, Madras, and the Punjab, and have spent a little time on the Bombay side, and have been largely guided by my experience. It is, I admit, quite likely that some of the birds I have omitted may be very common in certain localities. I shall be glad to hear of any such with a view to adding them to a second edition should that be called for.

I would emphasise the fact that this book is a mere key, and as such is of necessity a collection of the dry bones of ornithology and devoid of any literary merit. The book will lose much of its value unless it be used in conjunction with other books, such as Jerdon’s Birds of India, or the bird volumes of the Fauna of British India series, to which references are made in the case of every species mentioned. The present work is primarily a companion to either of the above volumes.

When once the common birds have been learned, it becomes comparatively easy to