INTRODUCTION I I have been interested in birds from my younger days and have kept talking Parrots, the smaller Skylarks, Mynas, Lal Munias, Racket-tailed Drongo, and Love-birds. This led my friend, Kamta Prasad Sagreiya, I.F.S., to ask me to prepare a list of Hindi names for the birds exhibited in the Museum at Nagpur. In the course of that work I had often to con- sult Sanskrit lexicons for derivation of names in Hindi. That done, naturally turned to the identification of bird-names in Sanskrit, for the dictionaries rendered a good few of them as 'a kind of bird' only. Soon after this was completed, I was closely associated with my friend, the late Dr. Raghuvira, Director, International Academy of Indian Culture, in the compilation of his book, Indian Scientific Nomenclature of Birds of India, Burma and Ceylon, according to the trinomial system of the Fauna of British India by Stuart Baker (1922-1930). In my present work, I have followed the order of bird-families of S. Baker, and the absence of birds of certain families in Sanskrit books consulted by me has been noted under the related chapters. II 1. The Rgveda, concerned chiefly with the mystic Soma cult, men- tions only about twenty birds which, however, does not imply that the Vedic poets' knowledge was confined to those birds only. They must have been familiar with birds of their neighbouring forest. Their powers of observation, love of birds, and prejudice againt some may be briefly illustrated: RV 1.164.20 presents a beautiful picture of two birds-one of beautiful plumage ( e.g. the Golden Oriole) and the other a bird of prey (gt-an Eagle)- sharing as friends a common tree for their abode, and while the former enjoys the sweet berries of the tree (Ficus religiosa) the other, not eating the berries, keeps a lookout (for prey) perched high up. on the tree.¹ RV 2.42 and 43 describe the welcome pleasant notes of the auspicious Grey Partridge (free) and the poet lovingly blesses the bird that it may not fall prey to a hawk or to a bow-man. Further, he pays it. high compliment by describing its sweet notes as a (song of praise). On the other hand the Rock Pigeon () and the Hooting Owl (e) are condemned as birds of ill omen in RV 10.165.4. 1. It is not necessary to bring out here the highly mystic transfer of the picture to a particular aspect of the mystic Soma cult in the next two verses of the hymn (consisting of
