THE 



NATURAL HISTORY REVIEW 



A 



QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE. 



XV. — The Zoology op British India. 



(1.) Catalogue of the Mammalia in the MrsEUM of the 



Asiatic Society of Bengal. By Edward Blyth, Curator, 



Calcutta, 1863. 

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



Birds known to inhabit Continental India. By T. C. 



Jerdon, Surgeon- Major, Madras Array, 3 vols. 8vo. Calcutta, 



1862-4. 

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



London, 1864. Published for the Eay Society, by Eobert Hard- 



wicke. 



In our last number we called attention to the recent publication of 

 three works relating to the Zoology of British India, the titles of 

 which are again given at the heading of the present article. We 

 also endeavoured to furnish our readers with a general outline of the 

 principal features of the Mammal-fauna of India, as deducible from 

 an examination of the first of these works. On the present occasion, 

 taking the second of these publications as our chief text, we shall 

 attempt to give some sort of general account of the principal forms 

 of the second great class of Vertebrates — that of Birds — which in- 

 habit the same country. 



In Dr. Jerdon's volumes we have to deal with a work of much 

 greater pretensions, and indeed of quite a different character from 

 Mr. Blyth's " Catalogue of Mammals." Dr. Jerdon's aim, as he has 

 told us in his prospectus, was to issue a '* Manual, which should 

 " comprise all available information, in sufficient detail for the dis- 

 " crimination and identification of such objects as might be met 

 ** with, without being rendered cumbrous by minutise of synonymy or 

 N.H.R.~186.'>. M 



