CONTRIBUTORS TO THE FIRST SERIES Or ^ THE IBIS.' 193^ 



Mr. T. C. JERDON. 



By the death of Thomas Caverhill JercToii, in his 61st 

 year^ the science of ornithology lost one of its most zealous 

 supporters^ and at a time too^ when, by his return to 

 England after a long sojourn in India, the remainder of a 

 useful life might have been spent in the revision of much 

 valuable work published at different times during his resi- 

 dence abroad. Mr. Jerdon was the son of Mr. Archibald 

 Jerdon^ of Bonjedward, Roxburghshire, and was born in 

 1811. In 1835 he entered the service of the Hon. East- 

 India Company as Assistant Surgeon in the Presidency of 

 Madras. In 1844 he published 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 issued in 1862. 

 This book has unquestionably proved of incalculable ser- 

 vice in promoting 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 materials that he had since collected, 

 both from his own observations and those of others. The 

 "Supplementary Notes" published in this Journal, and 

 continued down to the end of the Timeliidse, 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 Avork he 

 visited the greater part of India, as well as 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, Avith the aid of copious notes 

 and sketches. 



