Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 3).djvu/10

vi The parts of the sternum occasionally mentioned in the descriptions of orders are well known, with perhaps the exception of the manubrium or manubrial process, called by some writers the rostrum. This is a simple or compound process, projecting forward at the middle of the anterior border, just where the keel of the sternum joins the body, and in front of the inner terminations of the coracoids. It comprises a distal spine (spina externa) and a proximal one (spina internet), either of which may be wanting. The spina externa is either simple or forked.

The descriptions in this, as in other volumes of the Fauna of British India, are taken from the magnificent series of Indian Birds in the British Museum (Natural History), and every facility and assistance has been afforded to Mr. Gates and myself by Sir W. H. Flower, the Director of the Natural History Museum, and Dr. A. Giinther, Keeper of the Department of Zoology. Especially we are under the greatest obligations to the officers in charge of the bird collection, Dr. R. B. Sharpe and Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant, for aid of every kind most freely and kindly afforded during the progress of the present work. Mr. Gates, when he left England, made over to me all the notes he had prepared for the continuation of the work, and they have been of very great service. I have also to express my obligations to Dr. J. A. Waddell for a proof in advance of his excellent notes on Sikhim birds prepared for the ' Gazetteer' of that province; to Col. C. T. Bingham and Mr. Hauxwell for information about Burmese species ; and to Dr. Warth and Mr. W. M. Daly for lists of birds obtained in the Shevroy Hills.

Whilst I regret that this is not the last of the series of volumes containing the descriptions of Indian Vertebrata, I hope the final part will not be long delayed. W. T. BLANFORD. August 1st, 1895.