Mr. E. Blytb/s Remarks on M. SundevalPs Paper 



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 XXXIX.— -^4 /<?w Critical Remarks on M. Carl J. SundevalPs 



Paper on the Birds of Calcutta, as republished by H. E. Strick- 

 land, Esq. By Ed. Blyth, Curator to the Museum of the 

 Asiatic Society,, Calcutta, &c. 



Commencing with the remarks on the Bengal Soonderbuns 

 (vide Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist, xviii. 103), it may be as well to 

 observe, that the animal inhabitants of this notoriously baleful 

 region are far from being so little known as is commonly supposed, 

 nor are the lower alluvia of the numerous anastomosing outlets 

 of the Ganges so utterly unhealthy during great part of the year : 

 viz. nearly throughout the dry season, divided into cold and hot ; 

 or from the end of November to that of June, when the rains 

 have fairly set in. When the latter break up, the malaria be- 

 comes deadly to casual visitors, whether European or native ; and 

 even the Bengalee inhabitants are obliged to leave certain districts 

 for a while; though a Mugh population, from Arracan, which, 

 until recently, came to supply their place, seemed proof against 

 the deleterious miasmata. Considerable tracts are under culti- 

 vation ; and the belts of impenetrable dense jungle facing the 

 network of broad river channels in many instances conceal from 

 view a wide extent of productive rice cultivation within. Of the 

 zoology, I doubt much whether more discoveries remain to be 

 made there, at least among the terrene Vertebrata, than in other 

 parts of Bengal ; and even the Fishes have been so far investi- 

 gated, that novelties among them are by no means to be reckoned 

 upon in the course of an excursion. 



Next, I am constrained to disagree with M. Sundevall in his 

 estimation of the feathered musicians of Lower Bengal, which I 

 cannot think are comparable to those of his native land, the latter 

 being much the same as in Britain. Our finest song-bird in this 

 part of the world, beyond all comparison, is the ' Shaman ' (Kit- 

 tacincla macroura, Lath.), which is never heard in the wild state 

 upon the river alluvium, to which M. SundevalPs peregrinations 

 here were confined. The ' Agghin * (Mirafra cantillans, Jerdon) 

 is a tolerably good songster, but excessively rare in the same 

 broad tract of country, where it can be regarded merely as a 

 casual visitant : and the best song-bird which M. Sundevall could 

 have heard wild is the common Bengal lark {Alauda gulgula, 

 Franklin), the notes of which very closely resemble those of the 

 British skylark. Of arboreal songsters, the ' Dhyal ■ (Copsy- 

 chus saularis) has a pleasing, desultory, robin-like ditty, delivered 

 in short snatches, but without much variety ; and the Bulbuls and 

 a few other small birds have, at most, a few musical chirrups, 

 which the common Black Bulbul (Pycnonotus bengalensis, nobis) 

 connects into a continuous warble sometimes, during its breeding 



