394 THE CAXADIAJ^ NATURALIST. [Vol. vii. 



ON A COLLECTION OF HIMALAYAN BIRDS 



Recently presented to the Natural History Society hy Major G. 



E. Bulger. 



By J. F. "White AVES. 



The collection to which these notes refer, is only a small por- 

 tion of one of the largest donations the Society has ever received. 

 As an act of simple justice to the donor it is thought desirable 

 to give a short account of previous contributions from the same 

 liberal hand before considering that most recently received. In 

 1867 Major Bulger presented to the Society no less than 200 skins 

 of Himalayan birds. This collection must have taken no little 

 time, trouble and pecuniary expenditure, to get together. All 

 the specimens were correctly and carefully labelled, not only with 

 the scientific and English name of each species, but also with the 

 local Indian appellations, with exact localities, and often with the 

 name of the collector. The packing was very carefully attended to .' 

 the specimens were first put in a strong tin case, which was soldered 

 up so as to be perfectly air tight. A stout wooden box was then 

 made, into which the tin case was fitted, and after the lid had 

 been nailed down, a covering of stout canvass was glued round 

 the package, and over the canvass a thick coat of some water- 

 proof composition was painted. Unfortunately the very care 

 with which the box was packed proved almost fatal to the speci- 

 mens. The journey was a long and circuitous one, from India 

 round the Cape to England and then to Canada via New York. 

 The package was received in Montreal early in 1868, and it was 

 found that at least two-thirds of the specimens were hopelessly 

 rotten, and that all were badly injured. Perhaps some of the 

 skins were not perfectly dry when they were put in, and it seems 

 probable that if the box had not been air tight, but had allowed 

 tolerable free ventilation to the specimens, they would have 

 arrived in better condition. Be this as it may, the late Mr, 

 Hunter, who was then the Society's taxidermist, and whose abi- 

 lities in that capacity will be remembered by many of its mem- 

 bers, exerted himself to the utmost to save as many as possible. 

 The result was that about 60 specimens were mounted in inore or 

 less good order. 



