ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book would probably never have been written without the invaluable help and constant encouragement of my fellow ornithologist Jean-Claude Praz , of Saillon, Valais. I owe him my deepest gratitude. I am deeply indebted to Mr. Jean-Marie Rouiller and Electricité d'Emosson in Martigny, to Michael Walz and EPSITEC System in Lausanne, Switzerland for editing with Smaky computers.
The following persons have contributed to my collection of bird names, either by providing me with publications that were difficult to obtain, or by generously putting at my disposal names they had themselves collected:
Dr. Joachim Maluquer Sostres (Catalan), Prof. Mihai B âcescu (Romanian), Sir A.F.P. Christison (Scottish Gaelic), Dr. R. Melcher (Romansh), Prof. Moravej Hamadani (Kurdish), Mme Prof. J. Neufelt , St. Petersburg (Slavic), Mr. Max Hodge ( Modern Greek), Mr. Jeremy Swift (Iran: Lari), Mr. Charles Seymour (Egypt and Cyprus), Mr. Dillwyn Miles (West Wales Naturalists' Club), Mr. Raymond Robinson (Egypt: Digla), M. Jean-Claude Praz (Romansh), M. Marcelle Ruelle (Belgium), Sign. Bruno Massa (Palermo), Prof. F. Tammaro (Aquila), Dr. Tomia lojc (Polish), M. Egidio Anchisi (Northern Italy), Messrs. Raymond Lévêque (who also corrected and completed the bibliographical references), Paul Géroudet, Théodore Berchem, Prof. J. Gourvest, Prof. Orcés, Prof. Charles Galtier , Dr. Abbas Ahmadi (transliteration of official Iranian names), and Ms Ferzaneh Valadi (transliteration of Kurdish bird and place names in Mokri's book). My sincere thanks go to all these collaborators. And finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the following organizations, who provided financial support:
La Fondation Dr. Ignace Mariétan.
Swiss Academy of Sciences, Bern.
La Murithienne, Société Valaisanne des Sciences naturelles, Sion.
Le Conseil de la Culture de l'Etat du Valais, Sion.
Nos Oiseaux, Société Suisse Romande pour l'Etude et la Protection des Oiseaux.
La délégation valaisanne de la Loterie Romande, Sion.