Indian Birds: Being a Key to the Common Birds of the Plains of India — Context and Discussion

(0 User reviews) 265

In Category - Birds

Authors: Dewar, Douglas, 1875-1957 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2014 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Birds -- India Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 38,749

Reading time 169 min

Text sections 9

Before opening Indian Birds: Being a Key to the Common Birds of the Plains of India — Context and Discussion, the edition data offers a quick orientation: 38,749 words, 2 hr 49 min estimated reading time, and 9 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 11.1 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Birds -- India,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #46017

Douglas Dewar's 1920 field key classifies Indian plains birds by color, anatomy, and habit, enabling identification without killing specimens. The preface explains his frustration with existing technical manuals and his aim to create a quick-reference dictionary for amateur ornithologists.

Editorial Edition Score 4.6/5

★★★★★ ★★★★★

Calculated from edition completeness, EPUB availability, text structure and catalogue metadata. Not a user rating.

How this score is calculated

Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.

Edition quality

File: pg46017

Read the Text

_BEING A KEY TO THE COMMON BIRDS OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA BY DOUGLAS DEWAR_

_A COMPANION VOLUME TO THE BIRD VOLUMES OF “THE FAUNA OF BRITISH INDIA” & JERDON’S “BIRDS OF INDIA”_

_LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXX_

_2nd Edition_ (_Revised_)

_The Mayflower Press, Plymouth, England._ William Brendon & Son, Ltd.

I fear that the patience of those who have been awaiting this little book must be well-nigh exhausted, so long has it been in appearing. I began it two years ago, but had to put it aside during the last few months spent in India prior to taking furlough, on account of the heavy work the threatening famine entailed; and when one is on furlough one only works at the rare times when there is nothing better to do!

The object of this book is to enable people interested in our Indian birds to identify at sight those they are likely to meet with in their compounds and during their excursions into the jungle.

There are several good systematic works on Indian ornithology, but the descriptions in these presuppose that the reader has the specimen in his hand and is able to examine it leisurely, feather by feather. To do this it is necessary to kill the bird in question—a procedure which causes pain to many and gives pleasure to very few. Moreover, unless the seeker after knowledge has some notion as to the order to which the bird he has shot belongs, he will find that seeking it out in the four bird volumes of the _Fauna of British India_ series is a task almost as hopeless as that of looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Eha’s truly admirable book, entitled _The Common Birds of Bombay_, gives the reader a vivid description of our common Indian birds as they appear to the field naturalist; and I heartily commend this little masterpiece to every Anglo-Indian. But even this does not enable the observer to identify in a few seconds any bird he sees, for it is not written in the form of a key. The present book is an attempt at a key to the everyday birds of the plains of India, a dictionary of birds so arranged that the budding ornithologist is able to turn up any particular bird in a few minutes. This book is, I believe, the first of its kind that has been attempted.

The method I have adopted is to classify birds according to their habits and outward appearance. Every bird has a colour, and most birds possess some anatomical peculiarity, such as a crest, a long tail, long legs, etc. Not a few have some easily recognisable habit, such as a peculiar call or manner of flight. Thus most birds will appear in at least two of my classes, and so should be easily identified by a process of elimination. When the reader thinks that he has located a bird he should turn it up in the descriptive list, which composes Part II of this book, and this will serve to confirm or correct him in his identification. Thus, to take a very easy example, the observer while out walking sees a white bird with a long tail, and a black crested head. Looking through the lists of birds under (1) those having long tails; (2) those having a crest; (3) those mainly white, he will find that the Paradise Flycatcher is the only bird that appears in all three lists. Its number in the descriptive list is (57). A perusal of entry No. 57 will confirm the diagnosis, and indicate where illustrations of the bird are to be found.

I venture to hope that this little book will enable any person to learn in a few weeks to identify nearly all the common birds of his station.

The descriptions given in Part II of the book are short ones, and each is an attempt to depict the bird as it looks when perched in a tree or during flight. Sometimes the description given may appear to differ from those given in _The Fauna of British India_, or in Jerdon’s _Birds of India_. The reason of the apparent discrepancy is that the descriptions of the birds in these latter books are those of the skins of dead birds, while mine are attempts to depict the bird as he appears in the flesh.

Continue Reading →

Douglas Dewar opens his 1920 field key with a frank confession: the book was two years in the making, interrupted by famine-relief work in India and the distractions of furlough. This personal note sets the tone for a guide that is both practical and candid. Dewar explicitly rejects the standard ornithological method of killing birds for leisurely feather-by-feather examination. Instead, he proposes a classification system based on what a living bird shows the observer: its colour, any anatomical peculiarity such as a crest or long tail, and easily recognised habits like a distinctive call or flight pattern. The result is a 'dictionary of birds' arranged so that the budding ornithologist can turn up any particular bird in a few minutes.

A Key Built on Observation, Not Specimens

Dewar's key is designed for the field, not the museum tray. He notes that existing works like the Fauna of British India series require the reader to have the bird in hand and to examine it 'feather by feather'—a procedure that causes pain and gives pleasure to very few. His alternative is to classify birds by outward appearance and behaviour, so that most species appear in at least two categories, allowing identification by a process of elimination. For example, the Indian Red Munia is described as a tiny bird with a bright red beak and red eyes, its plumage reddish brown with patches of crimson and tiny white spots. The crimson is most vivid in the breeding-season cock, but both sexes always show a patch of crimson on the lower rump. Dewar emphasises that the birds look brown during flight; the crimson is only visible when they are at rest in sunlight.

Voice and Structure: A Conversational Manual

Dewar's prose is direct and often personal. He commends Eha's Common Birds of Bombay as a 'truly admirable book' and a 'little masterpiece,' but notes that it is not written in the form of a key. His own method is to group birds by shared traits, then provide a descriptive list in Part II. The entries vary in length: the house sparrow receives a terse description ('quite superfluous'), while the Common Rose-Finch gets a fuller account that quotes Jerdon on its bamboo-jungle habits and notes its seasonal appearance at Lahore, Lucknow, and Calcutta. Dewar often includes local names—the Rose-Finch is called Tuti by natives—and references to other observers like Cunningham and Jesse, giving the text a collaborative, conversational feel.

Pace and the Art of the Quick Glance

The book's pace is brisk, mirroring its purpose: to let the observer identify a bird 'in a few seconds.' Dewar achieves this by foregrounding the most conspicuous features. For the Yellow-throated Sparrow, he writes that it looks like 'a particularly tidy and slenderly built hen sparrow' and can be recognised by a pale yellow patch on the throat. For the Buntings, he invokes the familiar yellow-hammer's song ('A little bit of bread and no che-e-e-ese') before noting that several species visit the plains of India every cold weather. The entries are not exhaustive; they are snapshots designed to confirm or correct the reader's guess. When the reader thinks he has located a bird, he should turn to the descriptive list, which will serve to confirm or correct him.

Dewar's key is best used outdoors, with the book in one hand and binoculars in the other. The classification by colour and habit means that a bird seen briefly can often be narrowed down before consulting the detailed entries. Readers should note that the key covers only the common birds of the plains; it does not attempt to include rarities or hill species. The preface makes clear that this is a companion to the more technical Fauna of British India volumes, not a replacement. For those who want to identify birds without harming them, Dewar's method remains a practical and humane starting point.

Some field guides are keys to the world’s front door, like Dewar’s gentle classification, which asked only for patience, not plucked feathers. That same quiet courtesy lives in the Bird Guide: Water Birds, Game Birds, and Birds of Prey East of the Rockies — Background and Themes, a volume that seems to whisper, “stay a while,” meeting every heron and hawk as an old neighbor rather than a specimen.