424 ON THE LATE COLONEL TICKELL'S [187G. 



shooting or out visiting, bits of nature in the jungle, a tiger creeping up to children by the river- 

 side, a wild elephant wading down a shallow stream by moon-light, scene after scene recalling to 

 the Anglo-Indian at home memories of his Indian sojourn. In some, tragic subjects are vividly 

 depicted : — a victim of jealousy, the body of a woman lying on the ground hacked with many 

 tulwar-cuts, an infant by the dead mother's side, the pompous Kutwal, surrounded by officials, 

 making his investigations; a Meriah, a human sacrifice, the victim tied to a post, head hanging 

 down, men and women tearing and cutting the flesh off the still living body. In other scenes a 

 keen sense of humour is displayed : — an officer just arrived at a sporting rendezvous in tlie 

 jungle, some fifteen miles away, and the shikarree addressing him, " Your Lordship ! cherisher 

 of the poor! governor of the country! you are my father! you are God himself! The powder 

 is forgotten " *. 



Some ninety- four of these clever sketches are scattered through five of the seven volumes ; two 

 Ibis, 1876, hundred and sixty plates of birds, and seven plates containing figures of the eggs of forty-two 

 P' species, complete the illustrations. The notices of species, of which the letterpress mostly 



consists, may be divided under two heads — descriptions and accounts of those species known to 

 Colonel Tickell, and descriptions of species unknown to liim and copied from other authors. On 

 these last I do not propose to observe ; but I will endeavour to give a general idea of those parts 

 of the work which are original. Want of space prevents my doing justice to all the plates, or 

 to the many interesting accounts of habits which render the work so valuable. Indeed, if I only 

 succeed in drawing the attention of ornithologists to the work itself, my principal object will 

 have been attained. It is a sad reflection that ill health prevented so much patient industry, so 

 miich unostentatious labour, so much artistic skill, so much enthusiasm in the good cause, so 

 great a fidelity to nature, from being rewarded with that universal approbation publication 

 would undoubtedly have secured. 



The first two volumes embrace respectively the Eaptokes dihrni and the Raptores NOcrrENi. 

 On forty-one plates, contained in volume i., are depicted the better-known Indian and Burmese 

 species of Accipitres; but, with the exception oi Limnaetm kieneri and Falco peregrinator, none 

 of the rarer forms are delineated. Six species of Vultures are admirably figured. Otogups 

 calviis is stated to occur as commonly in Arracan and Burma as in Central India and tlie Madras 

 Presidency, Gyps indicus to be common in Burma, and Gi/ps hengalensis spread all over that 

 country. 



Aquila imperialis (heliaca), ? ad. and young in its third year, both from Bengal, constitute 

 the first two plates belonging to the Eagles. An adult male o£ Aquila ncevia, Gm. apud Jerdon 

 (B. Ind. no. 28), fi-om Daulan, Tenasserim, is figured ; and the species is stated to be not 

 uncommon in suitable localities in that province. The next plate is entitled Aqiiila fitlcescens^ 

 and a good plate of the Hmorungee [Xisa'etus fasciatus) feeding on a Black Partridge is followed 

 by one containing two figures of the Limnaetus niveus (T.), apud Jerd. (B. Ind. no. 34), in 

 plumage which Colonel Tickell characterizes as that of the third or fourth moult. The one is 

 Ibis, ISTO, represented pure white underneath, with (including the terminal) five caudal bands ; the other 

 !'■ "^ ■ with the under-surface plumage marked with brown drops, the thigli-coverts Avith the usual 

 transverse bars, and the rectrices with only four bands. 



* Khodawuud. Ghurreeb rurwur. Moolook Malik. Ap ma bap hye. Ap Khoda hye. Baioot bhoolgya ! 



