THE kind reception accorded to the first edition of the present little work has been deemed a justification for its reproduction in an improved form. A few neces- sary alterations have been made to bring it up to date, and the chapters have been re-arranged so as to bring the birds dealt with into the same order as that in which they occur in the Fauna of British India, Bird volumes.  The scientific names used for Indian birds are those of the above work, the few foreign species mentioned bearing the name given them in the British Museum, Catalogue of Birds.
The usefulness of the book will, it is hoped, be en- hanced by the illustrations, which have been drawn by that well-known ornithological artist, Mr. Herbert Good- child, in most cases from living birds in the collection of the London Zoological Society.

FRANK FINN.
LONDON, January 1904.