Indian Birds

Abstract

MR. OATES has, for the present, finished his work on Indian Birds, with the present instalment. It is satisfactory to learn, on the one hand, that the Indian Government so highly appreciate his administrative abilities in Burma, that they could not grant him the extra furlough necessary to complete his scientific work, and he was thus forced to terminate his duties in England, to return to his post in the Public Works Department at Tounghoo. It may be India's gain thus to sever him from the work which he so dearly loved and which he has executed with such conspicuous ability, but it will prove a loss to science, and it will be very hard to find anyone capable of continuing the description of the Birds of India in the same complete way that Mr. Oates has done. As the work has been done almost entirely in the writer's private room at the Natural History Museum, he is able to speak with some authority on the subject, and he wishes thus publicly to acknowledge the earnestness with which Mr. Oates wrote his book, the consideration which he showed for the officers of the Zoological Department, and the care which he took of the specimens, numbering many thousands, which passed through his hands. Curators of Museums will understand what we mean, for there is no part of their duty more irksome than the constant vigilance which is required to supervise the treatment of specimens by students, who seem to be often animated with the sole idea that when they have seen a specimen for their own purposes, it matters little whether the future investigator finds it with its head or wings off, or not. We only wish that every student of birds were endued with the reverent love for a well-prepared specimen which animates Mr. Oates and a few other naturalists we could mention. This by the way.

The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma.

Published under the authority of the Secretary of State for India in Council. Edited by W. T. Blanford. “Birds,” Vol. II. By Eugene W. Oates. 8vo, pp. i.–x., 1–407. (London: Taylor and Francis, 1890.)