Jo* President's Address. [ Feb. 



In Dr. Jerdoa, tlie Society has lost an old and well-tried friend and 

 fellow-labourer. It is now more than thirty years since his ' Catalogue of the 

 birds of the Peninsula' was published in the Madras Journal for 1S39. And 

 the numerous papers which he has since published in that Journal and in the 

 Journal of our own Society shew that his interest in this subject had never 

 ceased. His ' Illustrations of Indian Ornithology' was among the earliest at- 

 tempts at proper coloured figures of Indian Birds. His labours may be said 

 to have culminated in his well known and oft quoted ' Manual of the 

 Birds of India,' followed by his ' Game Birds of India.' Even after he had re- 

 tired from active service, and left the country, his first desire was to publish a 

 supplement to this valuable work, which he largely succeeded in doing by a 

 series of papers in the ' Ibis.' Indeed it is a proof of how entirely his heart 

 was wrapped up in the subject, that he was talking with his friend, Drescher, 

 of the ' Birds of India' until within a few hours of his decease, not conscious 

 of the danger that was impending over him. 



Nor did he, while thus devoting his attention chiefly to birds, neglect 

 the other classes of Vertebrata. He had conceived the noble idea of furnish- 

 ing students of Indian Natural History with monographs of each of these classes, 

 which he accomplished so far as the Mammalia were concerned. Reptiles 

 also had engaged his earnest attention for years, and were the subject of an 

 active and extensive correspondence with Gray, with Cantor, and Blyth. Our 

 Journal contains a catalogue of the Reptiles of the Peninsula of India, which 

 shews how desirous he was to attain accuracy in his determinations, and since 

 the publication of the Mammalia and Birds he had been most assiduously 

 collecting Reptiles, and indeed the first portion of his monograph on the 

 Reptiles of India was actually printed. I should notice also his very valu- 

 able catalogue of Fishes, in the Madras Journal, while in a different branch 

 of Natural History entirely, his descriptive account of the Indian Ants is one 

 of the best yet published. He had contributed to Benson and Blanford 

 many shells described by those writers, while many entomologists in India 

 can point with satisfaction to valued specimens of beetles and butterflies for 

 which they had been indebted to Jerdon's liberality. To all this range of 

 natural knowledge he added a wide accmaintance with Botany and the plants 

 of India, especially the ferns. 



Most of this work had been accomplished while Jerdon was in active ser- 

 vice with his regiment, and dependent on his own resources for books, speci- 

 mens, &c. for comparison. Gifted with remarkable powers of conversation, 

 and with his memory richly stored with anecdotes of others, and observations 

 of his own, he was a charming companion, while his untiring energy, and 

 keen sense of personal enjoyment, were absolutely infectious. 



Jerdon has left behind him an immense store of valuable notes, and of 

 coloured sketches from life, which we hope and trust may still be utilized. 



