Information respecting Zoological Travellers. 341 



years resident in India in the prosecution of his profession, and has 

 employed his leisure time in studying the zoology of that country, 

 particularly its ornithology. Our parcel contains a partial result of 

 researches in the latter department in the first part of a " Catalogue 

 of the Birds of the Peninsula of India, with brief Notes on their Habits 

 and Geographical Distribution* ;" and notwithstanding the informa- 

 tion contained in the illustrated works of Hardwicke and Gould, and 

 in the valuable Catalogues and Papers of Franklin, Sykes, Hodgson, 

 and Eyton, several species among the Raptores are given as new, 

 Mr. Jerdon divides the peninsula into four great districts or divisions. 

 1st, The Northern Circars, comprising a narrow tract of land (be- 

 tween 16° and 20° N. lat.) from the sea-coast on the eastern side of 

 the peninsula to the Eastern Ghauts, by which it is separated from 

 the Great^Table-land ; 2nd, The Carnatic, including the whole of the 

 country lying south of the Northern Circars along the coast as far 

 as Cape Comorin, and bounded on the west by the Eastern Ghauts, 

 except the Coimbotoor district, where the eastern as well as western 

 range is broken ; 3rd, Western coast, including Travancore, Cochin, 

 and Malabar, and comprising a strip of land of various width lying 

 between the sea on the western side of India, and the range of 

 Western Ghauts, which it includes; 4th, The great central table land, 

 including Mysore, the Baramahl, the ceded districts (Bellary andCud- 

 dapah),the kingdoms of Berar and Hyderabad, the Southern Mahratta 

 country and the Decan. 



The species already noticed in this range are 390, and the list will 

 probably be extended before the completion of the catalogue, which 

 now reaches only to a part of the Strigidse. Of the Falconidse 32 

 species are noted ; and among those belonging to the British list we 

 have Pandion Haliaetos, Aquila Chrysa'etos, Circus cineraceus and 

 rufus, Falco peregrinus and Tinnunculus, Accipiter fringillarius, and 

 Astur palumbarius . It is possible however that some of these may 

 require a more rigorous comparison with the birds of Europe. This 

 part of the catalogue is illustrated by a lithographic figure of an owl 

 (Huhua pectoralis), very neatly engraved ; and if figures can be pro- 

 duced in India equal to that now attempted, they will be of much 

 importance in illustrating the views of the gentlemen who may in 

 future attend to the zoology of this very interesting region. Our 

 correspondent states, " I have 50 or 60 drawings in the same style f, 

 drawn by myself and finished by the native artists I kept at Trinco- 



* Published in the Madras Journal of Literature and Science for Sep- 

 tember 1839. The Raptores. 



t Specimens accompany the packet well drawn and beautifully finished. 



