Subject: More bird books (long)
Many thanks to Bikram Grewal and Krys Kazmierczak for the lists of South
Asian bird books. Below are a few more titles, mainly books dealing with
Sri Lanka. Though not strictly 'books', many old book-length papers which
originally appeared in parts over a period of years are bound as separate
volumes in libraries and private collections. Some of these have later
been published as books, e.g. several of Stuart Baker's works. And which
collector of South Asian bird books would not give much to own a complete
set of Allan Hume's "Stray Feathers"?! Some recently published and
forthcoming bibliographies of Indian/South Asian ornithology have already
been mentioned here and obviously these should be consulted for additional
information, particularly for the periodical literature.
I guess it's a reflection of my relative inexperience as a bibliographer,
but I am sometimes unsure whether or not a particular book should be
included in a bibliography of Sri Lanka ornithology. Obviously, books
with 'birds' and 'Sri Lanka'/'Ceylon' in the title belong in such a
list, but what about more general works, or those which have a wider
geographic scope (e.g., 'The Land and Wildlife of Tropical Asia')? Do
monographs on various groups as well as books covering all the birds of
the world belong in such a list? The former may range from classic 19th
century works like those by Elliot, Gould, and others to modern books
like those in the Christopher Helm series, while the latter can range
from important works of reference such as the volumes in the British
Museum catalogue by Sharpe et al. to various world checklists and other
recent books, some of which are of little scientific value.
Babault, G. 1920. Mission Guy Babault dans les Provinces Centrales de
l'Inde dans la Region Occidentale de l'Himalaya et Ceylan 1914.
Resultats Scientifiques. Oiseaux. Imprimerie Generale Lahure, Paris.
542 pp., 6 col. plts., 2 maps. ['Etude de oiseaux collectionnes dans
l'ile de Ceylan' pp. 265-332.]
Baker, E. C. S. 1923. A Hand-list of the Genera and Species of Birds of
the Indian Empire. Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay. ix, 240 pp.
[Originally serialised 1920-23 in the Journal of the Bombay Natural
History Society 27(2): 228 to 27(1): 22.]
Baker, E. C. S. 1942. Cuckoo Problems. H. F. & G. Witherby, London. xvi,
207 pp., 8 col. & 4 b/w plts.
Banks, J.[D. N.] & Banks, J. 1990. A Selection of the Birds of Sri Lanka.
2nd revised and enlarged edition. Lake House Investments Ltd.,
Colombo. [40] pp. incl. 15 col. plts. [Entirely new illustrations.]
de Zoysa, N. & Raheem, R. 1990. Sinharaja. A Rainforest in Sri Lanka.
Revised edition. March for Conservation, Colombo. vii, 61 pp., ill.,
maps, bibl., 24cm. [Birds pp. 32-35, illustrated with excellent
drawings by Dinarzade Raheem. First issued in 1987.]
de Zylva, T. S. U. 1984. Birds of Sri Lanka. A selection of fifty-six
colour pictures. Trumpet Publishers, Colombo. 133, 2 pp. [A fine
series of photographs by Sri Lanka's best known bird photographer.]
'Eha'=Aitken, Edward Hamilton. Bikram listed several of this amusing
writer's books. I believe I have in my collection in Sri Lanka almost
all his works, including the posthumous volume 'Concerning Animals
and Other Matters' which has a biography and portrait of 'Eha'.
Felsinger, C. G. A. 1934. Birds in the Garden in the Low Country Wet-Zone
of Ceylon. Privately published, printed by Frewin & Co., Colombo.
63 pp., 20 plts. (hand-coloured photoprints). [Only 200 copies of
this work were produced.]
Felsinger, C.[G. A.] 1972. It was the Babblers' Nest. Lake House
Investments Ltd., Colombo. 160 pp., ill. [An account of the author's
childhood in Sri Lanka, with many references to birds.]
Ferguson, W. 1887. List of the Birds of Ceylon, carefully compiled from
Capt. W. Vincent Legge's exhaustive work with the Sinhalese and Tamil
names in Roman characters, and signs affixed for useful information
about each particular bird, as to whether resident or not; with notes
by Samuel Bligh. Ceylon Observer Press, Colombo. 13 pp.
Haly, A. 1887. First Report on the Collection of Birds in the Colombo
Museum. Colombo. 80 pp. [Author not indicated but it is obviously by
Haly, who was then Director of the Colombo Museum.]
Henry, G. M. 1953. A Picture Book of Ceylon Birds. Department of
Information, Ceylon. xviii, 43 pp., 30 (27 col.) plts., text figs.
[Plates same as in 'Guide' (1955, 1971) but text short and simple.]
Henry, G. M. & Wait, W. E. 1927-35. Coloured Plates of the Birds of
Ceylon. Ceylon Government, Colombo. Parts I-IV. [16 plts. in each
part, total 64 plts. [Neither plates (by Henry) nor letterpress (by
Wait) numbered. The original paintings were commissioned by Casey A.
Wood and are now at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.]
Hume, A.[O.] 1869[-70]. My Scrap Book: or Rough Notes on Indian Oology
and Ornithology. Privately published, printed at Baptist Mission
Press, Calcutta. x, 237 pp.
Hume, A.[O.] 1973-75. Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds. Rough Draft.
Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta. 3, 662 pp. See Hume
& Oates (1889-90) for 2nd edition.]
Hume, A. O. & Oates, E. W. 1889-90. The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds.
2nd edition, edited by E. W. Oates. R. H. Porter, London. 3 vols.
Vol. I (1889) x, 397 pp., 4 plts. (portraites of Allan Octavian Hume,
Thomas Caverhill Jerdon, Brian Houghton Hodgson, Samuel Richard
Tickell); Vol. II (1890) ix, 420 pp., 4 plts. (portraites of
William Thomas Blanford, Robert George Wardlaw Ramsay, Henry
Haversham Godwin-Austen, Edward Blyth); Vol. III (1890) ix, 461 pp.,
4 plts. (portraites of Arthur, Ninth Marquis of Tweeddale, William
Edwin Brooks, Richard Bowdler Sharpe, William Ruxton Davison. This
work must be considered a companion to Oates & Blanford's 'Fauna of
British India' volumes, just as Baker's 'Nidification' is a companion
to his edition of the 'Fauna'.]
Kelaart, E. F. 1853 ('1852'). Prodromus Faunae Zeylanicae; being
Contributions to the Zoology of Ceylon. Printed for the author at
the Observer Press, Colombo. xxxiii, 197, 62, [4] pp. [Birds of Nuwara
Eliya pp. xxv-xxvi, xxix-xxxi; 'Birds of Ceylon' pp. 91-137, also
Appendix. Appendix consists mostly of reprints of Blyth's papers.]
Kershaw, C. 1925. Familiar Birds of Ceylon. H. W. Cave & Co., Colombo.
144 pp., 1 col. plt., b/w figs. [Cicely Kershaw was 22 years old when
this was published. Her 'Bird Life in Ceylon' (1949) was published
under her married name, Cicely Lushington.]
Kershaw, C. 1933. Familiar Birds of Ceylon. 2nd edition. H. W. Cave
& Co., Colombo. 163 pp., 47 figs.
Kotagama, S. W. 1986. Kurullan Narambamu [Let's Watch Birds]. Pubudu
Printers & Publishers, Colombo. 105 pp., 8 col. plts., text figs.
[An introductory work on studying birds, in Sinhala. Of special
interest are the maps showing the distribution of endemic species.]
Legge, W. V. 1878-80. A History of the Birds of Ceylon. Published by the
author, printed by Taylor & Francis, London. xlvi, 1237 pp., 34 col.
plts., 1 col. map, 1 diag., 11 woodcuts. [Part I (November 1878):
pp. 1-344; Part II (September 1879): pp. 345-730; Part III (September
1880): pp. 731-1237; introductory material also issued in 1880
(i-xlvi, 1-4 pp.). The classic monograph on Sri Lanka birds,
especially useful for descriptions of plumage and details of
distribution, weak on nesting. The plates (mostly by J. G. Keulemans)
illustrate the endemic forms. Reissued in 1881 (with Appendix III).]
Legge, W. V. 1983. A History of the Birds of Ceylon. 2nd edition.
Tisara Prakasakayo Ltd., Dehiwela. 4 vols. Vol. I: ccliii, 214 pp.,
map, diag., 4 col plts.; Vol. II: [4], 215-695 pp., 20 col plts.;
Vol. III: [4], 696-1177 pp., 8 col plts.; Vol IV: [3], 1178-1624 pp.
[Main text and plates as in original but not a facsimile reprint,
includes new introductory material.]
Lushington, C. [1949]. Bird Life in Ceylon. Times of Ceylon Ltd.,
Colombo. 117 pp., 7 col plts., text figs.
Murray, J. A. 1890. The Avifauna of the Island of Ceylon. Kegan Paul,
Trench Trubner, London & Education Society Press, Bombay. xxxiv,
382 pp., 2 col. plts., 2 diags., 37 figs. [This little-known book
must have been a cheap substitute for Legge's sumptuous volume.
Murray was based in what is now Pakistan and is not known to have
visited Sri Lanka.]
Perera, D. G. A. & Kotagama, S. W. 1983. A Systematic Nomenclature for
the Birds of Sri Lanka. Tisara Prakasakayo Ltd., Dehiwela. 108 pp.
Phillips, W. W. A. 1949-61. Birds of Ceylon. Ceylon Daily News Press/
Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd., Colombo. 1 (1949) Familiar Birds
of the Garden. [6], 32 pp., 20 col. plts., 4 photos, map; 2 (1952)
Birds of Our Swamps and Tanks. 49 pp., 20 col. plts., 5 photos, map;
3 (1955) Birds of Our Highlands. 51 pp., 20 col. plts., 5 photos, map;
4 (1961) Birds of the Ruhuna National Park. 53 pp., 20 col. plts.,
6 photos, map. Colour plates by Cicely Lushington.
Phillips, W. W. A. 1953. A (1952) Revised Checklist of the Birds of
Ceylon. National Museums of Ceylon, Natural History Series (Zoology).
xv, 132 pp.
Phillips, W. W. A. 1976 ('1975'). A 1975 Annotated Checklist of the
Birds of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Wildlife & Nature Protection Society of
Ceylon, Colombo. xiii, 92 pp., 5 photos, map.
Phillips, W. W. A. 1978. Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Ceylon (Sri
Lanka). Revised edition. Wildlife & Nature Protection Society of Sri
Lanka in association with the Ceylon Bird Club, Colombo. xix, 93 pp.,
5 ills., 2 maps.
Ranasinghe, D.[B.] 1976. Asirimath Kurulu Lokaya [The Wonderful World
of Birds]. Wildlife & Nature Protection Society, Colombo. 248 pp.,
text figs. [In Sinhala.]
Ranasinghe, D.[B.] 1982. A Guide to Bird Watching in Sri Lanka. 2nd
impression. Privately published, printed by T. H. C. de Silva at
U. K. G. Printers, Colombo. 29 pp. [Text slightly augmented.]
Ranasinghe, D. B. & de Zylva, T. S. U. 1978. Sri Lanka Avifaunal List
(Sinhala-English). Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri
Lanka in association with the Ceylon Bird Club, Colombo. 34 pp.
[The authors' names do not appear on cover/title page.]
Tennent, J. E. 1861. Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon. Longman,
Green, Longman & Co., London. xxiii, 500 pp., ill. [Material on birds
contributed by E. L. Layard. A very useful expanded version of the
natural history sections of Tennent's larger work 'Ceylon' (1859).]
Wait, W. E. 1931. Manual of the Birds of Ceylon. 2nd edition. Director,
Colombo Museum, Ceylon & Dulau & Co. Ltd., London. xxxiii, 494 pp.
[Lacks plates (by E. L. Moses) found in the 1st edition (1925).]
Priyantha
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dilrukshan Priyantha Wijesinghe Email:dwijesin@email.gc.cuny.edu
Department of Entomology Fax: 212-769 5277
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th Street
New York, NY 10024