ANGLO-INDIAN readers of the present work will notice that birds of prey, waders, game-birds and water- fowls have been omitted therefrom, although some species of these such as the kite are among the very commonest birds of the East ; but this was done owing to exigencies of space, which compelled greater atten- tion to some of the “ small birds.” In dealing with these, also, I have endeavoured, where a choice had to be made, to deal with as many different groups as possible, rather than to particularize many species in one group, in the hope of making the book serviceable as an intro- duction to the study of the ornithology of our Eastern Empire.
The same considerations have guided me in the avicultural part of the work, wherein I have endeavoured to meet the requirements of the beginner in bird-keeping by indicating those species which are most easily obtained and kept. The names of imported cage-birds are dis- tinguished by an asterisk in the letter press and by Italics in the List of Contents.

F. FINN,
LONDON, 1915.