The Book of Indian Birds

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Salim Ali was as active in the field of conservation as he was in ornithology. He was probably the only person who had travelled to all the obscure regions of the Indian Subcontinent at one time or another of his life and knew the country, its forests and its bird life intimately. He lived and worked for the birds of his land, to present these ethereal spirits of the air to his countrymen and to the world.

The publication by the Bombay Natural History Society in 1961 of A SYNOPSIS OF THE BIRDS OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN by S. Dillon Ripley meant an upheaval for bird students in this country accustomed to the older order of classification. The latter had been followed in all important publications on Indian birds since the first edition of the Bird volumes in the FAUNA OF BRITISH INDIA series by Oates and Blanford (1889-1898) including the second edition of that work by EC Stuart Baker (1922-1930), POPULAR HANDBOOK OF INDIAN BIRDS by Hugh Whistler (1949), the fifth edition of THE BOOK OF INDIAN BIRDS, and others as well as in periodical literature. The change was bound to cause some inconvenience and confusion at first, but it had become essential in order to bring Indian ornithology in line with the system of classification which, with minor variations, has now come to be internationally accepted and adopted. Ripley's SYNOPSIS and all present-day publications on birds, including those pertaining to our neighbouring areas-the Palaearctic Region, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and others-follow the modern system. Increasing use and familiarity with the new arrangement should soon dispel its initial disadvantages for Indian bird students. Therefore an attempt has been made to modernize the sequence of Orders and Families to accord with the prevailing 'fashion'. This has been largely achieved by appropriate shifting and rearrangement of the plates and text. Despite some remaining inconsistencies, due to the old illustrations having been specially prepared for the superseded classification, the result has been more satisfactory than was at first thought possible. Nevertheless the list showing the new sequence of Orders and Families has been retained from the 8th edition as a corrective where necessary.
The omission of a number of species commonly seen in certain parts of the plains, and likewise in the peninsular hills, was a source of inconvenience to users of the book. By the addition of eight new colour plates depicting 32 extra species and their descriptions it is sought to remove this lacuna in part. Thus the present edition embraces the entire subcontinent south of the Himalayas together with Sri Lanka - hills as well as plains. It now covers 296 birds illustrated in colour and fully described, in addition to several others briefly noticed. The species selected are amongst the more common and readily seen birds in the country, chiefly in the plains and foothills. They represent just under 15 per cent of the total avifauna of India as listed in SYNOPSIS and described and illustrated in the 10 volumes of HANDBOOK OF THE BIRDS OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN (including also those of Bangladesh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Sri Lanka) by Salim Ali & S. Dillon Ripley published between 1968 and 1974.
Hindi names of birds have been provided wherever available. I cannot vouch for their correctness in all cases or say how common or well understood they are in general. But it seems obvious, if bird study is to prosper and develop in India, that simple Hindi names should be standardized if necessary coined or borrowed from other languages put into circulation as early as possible under the authority of some recognized central organisation like the Bombay Natural History Society.
The standards of size employed in previous editions have been retained as they were on the whole found satisfactory in practice except in the case of complete strangers to the country and its birds. The size in inches given after each 'standard' should help the latter up to a point.