338 Lord Waldeii on the lute Colonel Tic/cell's 



grounds of illustrated English ornithological works, it is a 

 relief and a pleasure to find every bird surrounded by real 

 leaves^ pecking at real flowers, or climbing real trees, or with 

 real Indian buildings and Indian animals in the distance. 

 The drawing of Milvus govinda sitting on the cornice of a town 

 house, that of Hirundo javnnica clinging to its nest under 

 the eaves of an up-country liungalow, or that of Hirundo 

 erythropygia skimming over the marsh where a sportsman 

 has just dropped a Snipe, startling the black buffaloes in the 

 foreground, may be cited, at random, as instances of the 

 artistes art. But as if his beautiful drawings were not a suffi- 

 cient adornment to the work. Colonel Tickell has appended 

 to most of the pages descriptive of the genera small oval 

 vignettes, done in Indian ink, illustrating the customs and 

 ways of the people, the incidents of an Indian officer's life in 

 quarters, in camp, and on the march, out shooting or out 

 visiting, bits of nature in the jungle, a tiger creeping up to 

 children by the river-side, a wild elephant wading down a 

 shallow stream by moon-light, scene after scene recalling to 

 the Anglo-Indian at home memories of his Indian sojourn. 

 In some, tragic subjects are vividly depicted : — a victim of 

 jealousy, the body of a Avoman lying on the ground hacked 

 with many tulwar-cuts, an infant by the dead mother's side, 

 the pompous Kutwal, surrounded by officials, making his in- 

 vestigations ; a Meriah, a human sacrifice, the victim tied 

 to a post, head hanging down, men and women tearing and 

 cutting the flesh ofi" the still living body. In other scenes 

 a keen sense of humour is displayed : — an officer just ar- 

 rived at a sporting rendezvous in the jungle, some fifteen 

 miles away, and the shikarrec addressing him, "Your Lord- 

 ship ! cherisher of the poor ! governor of the country ! 

 you are my father ! you are God himself ! The powder is 

 forgotten'"'^. 



Some ninety-four of these clever sketches are scattered 

 through five of the seven volumes ; two hundred and sixty 

 plates of birds, and seven plates containing figures of the 



* Khodawund. Ghurreeb rurwur. Moolook Malik. Ap ma bap bye. 



Ap Khoda bye. Baroot bhoolgvn I 



