THE 



NATURAL HISTORY REVIEW 



A 



QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE. 



I.— The Zoology of British India. 



(1.) Catalogue of the Mammalia ii^ the Museum of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal. By Edward Blyth, Curator, 

 Calcutta, 1863. 



(2 ) The Birds of India, being a Natural History of all Birds 

 knowu to inhabit Continental India. By T. C, Jerdon, Surgeon- 

 Major, Madras Army, 3 toIs. 8vo. Calcutta, 1862-4. 



(3.) The Eeptiles of British India. By Dr. Albert Giintlier. 

 London, 1861*. Published for the Bay Society, by Bobert 

 Hardwicke. 



"Whateyer other advantages may have resulted to civilization from 

 the British occupation of the Indian Peninsula, it cannot be said 

 that the established authorities of our kith and kin in that country 

 haye as yet done much for the benefit of the Natural Sciences. A 

 whole host of private collectors and amateurs have, it is true, worked 

 long and laboriously on different branches of Indian Zoology and 

 Botany. But up to the present time we look in vain for anything 

 like an attempt to reduce into order the mass of materials thus 

 accumulated, and to combine them into a Natural Histoiy of British 

 India — such as has been prepared by other European Governments, 

 in the case of similar foreign dependencies. 



It Avould, nevertheless, appear that the governmental mind of 

 India is at length awakening to the fact that it is the part of an 

 enlightened administration, if not to take such matters in hand 

 altogether, at least to suffer others to do so, and in certain cases 

 even to mete out some slight encouragement to their labours. 

 The " Flora Indica*' of Drs. Hooker aad Thompson, which some 



N.H.E.— 1865. B 



