Letters, Announcements, ^'c. . 343 



Hon. East-India Company as Assistant Surgeon in the Presi- 

 dency of Madras. In 1844 he pubUshed his first work on 

 zoology, the ' Illustrations of Indian Ornithology.' Mr. Jerdon's 

 name, however, will be best known to ornithologists by his work 

 on the Birds of India, which was published in 1862. This 

 book has unquestionably proved of incalculable service in pro- 

 moting the study of ornithology in India. The edition was 

 speedily sold ; and we believe that it was the author's intention 

 to have published a second edition, incorporating all the mate- 

 rials that he had since collected, both by his own observations 

 and those of others. The " Supplementary Notes " published in 

 this Journal, and continued down to the end of the Timaliidce, 

 were intended to prepare the way for this second edition. 



Mr. Jerdon had special facilities granted him by the Indian 

 Government to enable him to bring out the ' Birds of India,' and 

 in collecting the material for his work he visited the greater part 

 of India, and also visited Assam and Burmah. His knowledge 

 of birds was very great ; but he studied them , not by amassing 

 their skins, as is the usual, and perhaps the best, way, but by 

 committing, as it were, their peculiarities to memory, with the aid 

 of copious notes and sketches. 



Mr. Jerdon was elected an Honorary Member of our Union 

 in 1864; on his return to England, at his own request he was 

 placed on the list of Ordinary Members. He died on the 12th 

 of June last, after a long and tedious illness originally contracted 

 in Assam, and which not even the change to the climate of 

 Europe enabled him to shake off. 



Colonel William Henry Sykes, who died June 16th, in his 

 83rd year, is better known as a politician and as a statist than 

 for his labours as a zoologist. He was the only son of Samuel 

 Sykes, Esq., of Friezing Hall, Yorkshire, and was born in 1790. 

 In 1804 he entered the Bombay army, and served under Lord 

 Lake at the first siege of Bhurtpore, in 1805. In 1817-18 he 

 commanded a native regiment in the battles of Kirkee and Poona, 

 besides taking part in other military operations. Having retired 

 from the Hon. East-India Company's service in 1837, he was 

 elected one of the Home Directors of that body in 1840, and 



