344 Letters, Announcements, l^c. 



continued as such until the abolition of the Court of Directors, 

 having been Deputy-Chairman since 1856, and annually elected 

 Chairman of the Shareholders since 1858. Col. Sykes was Lord 

 Rector of Marischal College and of the University of Aberdeen 

 in 1854, and was Chairman of the Society of Arts in 1856; in 

 1858 he was elected President of the Uoyal Asiatic Society, and 

 of the Statistical Society of London in 1863. He was first 

 elected M.P. for Aberdeen in April 1857, and was unopposed in 

 all of the subsequent elections. As a legislator he was chiefly 

 known for his advocacy of the claims of Indian officers. 



Col. Sykes was the author of several statistical papers, relating 

 mostly to India, and when on service in the Bombay Dukhun, 

 he studied the zoology of that part of the country, and made 

 collections, which are now deposited in the India- House Museum. 

 His catalogues of the Mammalia and of the Birds of the Dukhun, 

 published in the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society^ for 

 1831-32, are the earliest systematic catalogues which we possess 

 of those classes in any part of India (properly so called) ; and he 

 subsequently contributed to the ' Transactions of the Zoological 

 Society' papers on the Quails and Hemijjodii (or Turnices) of 

 India, and upon the fishes of the Dukhun, the latter illustrated 

 by figures taken by native artists under his superintendence. 

 In his catalogue of the birds of the Dukhun as many as 56 

 species are described as new ; and of the specific names which he 

 bestowed upon them, we find that 27 are accepted at the present 

 time. The following is a list of them, but with the modern 

 generic appellations : — Milvus govinda, Circus pallidus, Stjrnium 

 indranee, Ptyonoprogne concolor, Cecropis erythropygia, Capri- 

 mulgus mahrattensis, Hemipus picatus, Hypsipetes ganeesa, Lanius 

 lahtora, Oriolus kundoo, Malacocercus somervillii, Pomatorhinus 

 horsfieldi, Hippolais rama, Prinia socialis, Drymoeca inornata, 

 Motacilla dukhunensis, Pratincola bicolor, Spizalauda deva, ^tho- 

 pyga vigorsii, Leptocoma minima, Palumbus elphinstonii, Turtur 

 meena, Microperdix erythrorhyncha, Turnix taigoor, Herodias 

 asha, Ardeola grayi, Gallinula (?) akool. 



