15G THE NATUKAL niSTORT RETIEW. 



cause. In 1832, Mr. Gould's celebrated series of illustrated Orni- 

 tliological works was commenced by the publication of bis " Century 

 of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains," — in which 100 of the 

 many remarkable forms that people the southern slopes of the Hi- 

 malayas were first pourtrayed. About the same period also Mr. 

 Brian H. Hodgson, for many years British resident at the Court of 

 Nepal, began his labours. This gentleman — it may be fairly said 

 — has distinguished himself far beyond all his fellow-workers, by 

 the great extent of his collections, and the numerous observations he 

 has given to the public on almost every branch of Natural Science. 

 Before Mr. Hodgson commenced his residence in Nepal, the Zoo- 

 logy of that country and of the high ranges of the great adjacent 

 mountain-chain was almost unknown in Europe — and the novelties, 

 which it fell to his lot to discover and describe were conse- 

 quently both striking and numerous. With the utmost liberality 

 Mr. Hodgson has from time to time presented the whole of his 

 enormous collections to the British Museum, and to other scientific 

 institutions in this country — and though it is much to be regretted 

 that he has never collected the whole of his scattered writings into 

 one connected series, this deficienc-y has been to some extent sup- 

 plied by two catalogues of Mr. Hodgson's collections, published by 

 the Trustees of the British Museum in 1846 and 1863. Eeferring 

 to the list of Birds in the second edition of this catalogue, (prepared, 

 we believe, by Mr. Q-. E. Grray,) it will be seen that the species of 

 this class of Vertebrates obtained by Mr. Hodgson, in Nepal, Sikim, 

 and Tibet, number no less than 658. Nearly the whole of these are 

 represented in our National Collection, through Mr. Hodgson's 

 munificence, by several specimens in skins, as well as by drawings 

 made from life, and in many instances, by skeletons or portions of 

 skeletons. 



Of the impulse given to the study of Natural History generally 

 in India, by the appointment of Mr. Eward Blyth to the post of 

 Curator of the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Caloitta in 1841, 

 we have already spoken in our previous article on the Mammals of 

 India. Besides very numerous contributions to the pages of the 

 Asiatic Society's Journal, in the shape of reports on the additions 

 made to the Museum,* original papers and notices contributed by 



* ReferrJng to these reports Mr. StricklaDd has remarked :— "The reports which 

 Mr. Blyth pre^ents to the Asiatic Society, contain a mass of interesting observa- 

 tions, and present an example which the curators of European museums would do 



