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Ih Natural History what advance can be effected without a 

 Collection of Specimens to refer to ? How vain the attempt 

 to comprehend the subject by Books alone ! The Museum 

 affords a facility in such pursuits, for the want of which 

 nothing could compensate. Of this the contributors seem 

 well aware, and the Directors and Curators feel pleasure in 

 recording the valuable presentations made by His Excellency 

 the present Governor of Madras, (Right Hon, S, R, Lush- 

 ington) which comprise specimens of several of the noble 

 Mammalia of that Country, as the Bengal Tiger (Felis 

 Tigris,) Leopard (Felis Leopardus,) Panther (Felis Par- 

 dss,) Ounce (Felis Uncia,) Elk (Cervus Alces,) &c, &c. ; 

 also a magnificent Skull of a large domesticated Elephant 

 with tusks ; as well as upwards of 150 species of the fea- 

 thered race, some of which as the Vulture, Hornbill, Rol- 

 ler, Barbet, Nuthatch, and Ibis, have enabled the Curators 

 to fill up Genera which were before wholly wanting in the 

 cases. Many of the Birds were shot on the Neelgherry 

 Mountains, at an elevation of between eight and nine thou- 

 sand feet from the level of the Sea, and afford an illustration 

 that altitude in a warm climate is equal to North Latitude, 

 as fer as animated nature is concerned ; for among the birds 

 procured in that situation (Lat. 10.° N.) were the Sparrow 

 Hawk (Falco Nisus,) Henharrier (Falco Cyaneus,) Hoopoe 

 (Upupa Epops,) Woodcock (Scolopax Rusticola,) and others 

 common to our own Latitude. Amongst those especially 

 deserving notice are a new and undescribed species of Owl 

 —the Indian Jungle Cock and Hen, the probable origin of 

 our own domestic Poultry — the Ibis, remarkable for its 

 similitude to the figures on Egyptian monumental remains — 

 the Cinnamon Heron (Ardea Cinnamonea)— the Indian 

 Grous (Tetrao Indicus,) &c, &c. Taken as a whole, this 

 Collection is by far the most valuable and extensive of any of 

 the presentations in Natural History, that have been received 

 since the formation of the Museum, 



