I7C JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 



SOME NEW BOOKS OF INDIAN ZOOLOGY.* 



In the early years of Her present Majesty's reign, the few natu- 

 ralists of India worked almost "on their own hook"; at any rate, 

 with little assistance. A handful of Madras doctors and one Madras 

 Civilian, a Bombay doctor or two, and scarce any one else in 

 Bombay. A little group centreing at the Bengal Asiatic Society, 

 with Blyth and Hodgson as leaders, were preparing the way. Except 

 Blyth himself, and the early martyr Heifer, scarcely one was what 

 we now call a professional naturalist, devoted to India, though some 

 birds of passage of that feather had come and gone. 



Meanwhile the flood of the Victorian age was setting in strong 

 at home. The late Prince Consort, after his fashion, was aiding and 

 encouraging every science and art ; and new names were already 

 beginning to be known in scientific circles that have since become 

 known to the world. 



The outer circles of the wave were felt even in the somewhat 

 Philistine Secretariat of India, and Lord Canning's Government, 

 casting around for a competent man, dii*ected Surgeon-Major 

 T. C. Jerdon, of the Madras Army, to compile a set of manuals of 

 the mammals, birds, fishes, and reptiles of India. 



No better man could have been found in the Services. Probably 

 the only other possible man was the lamented Blyth, Jerdon's friend, 

 and perhaps his superior as a naturalist, but probably not his equal for 

 the matter in hand. At any rate, the acknowldgment of Jerdon 

 himself, couched in most generous terms, leaves little room for doubt 

 that all that could be done for the work by Blyth was done by him. 



*"The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma." 

 Published under the authority of the Secretary of State for India in Council. 

 Edited by W. T. Blanford, F.R.S. London : Taylor and Francis. 

 Calcutta: Thacker and Spink. Bombay: Thacker & Co. 



"Mammalia," Vol. L, Part I., by W. T. Blanford, &c. "Fishes." 

 2 Vols, (complete), by Francis Day, CLE., LL.D., Deputy Surgeon- 

 General. " Birds," Vol. I., Eugene W. Oates. 



"The Avifauna of British India and its Dependencies." By 

 James A. Murray, Member of the Bombay N. H. Society, &c. Loudon : 

 Triibner & Co. Bombay : Education Society's Press. 



