

INTRODUCTION Xlll 



Dr. Bowdler Sharpe was sent out to Simla to take over the 

 collection and bring it to London. In 1891 Mr. Hume also 

 presented to the Museum a number of skulls and horns of 

 big game animals of the Indian Empire and the neighbouring 

 countries. He wrote various ornithological monographs, and 

 in collaboration with Colonel C. H. T. Marshall (who was 

 responsible for the illustrations rather than the text), he 

 brought out in three volumes, 'The Game Birds of India, 

 Burma, and Ceylon,' published in Calcutta from 1879 to 

 1881. His botanical hobby was industriously pursued until 

 his last illness. He founded and endowed the South London 

 Botanical Institute at Tulse Hill, and gave it his collection 

 of from 30,000 to 40,000 sheets of preserved British and 

 casual alien plants, brought together chiefly by his own 

 labour, from all parts of the British Isles. 



" He married Mary Anne Grindall, who died in 1890, and 

 their only child is the widow of Mr. Eoss Scott, sometime 

 Judicial Commissioner of Oudh." 



Mr. Hume, who had for some time previously been in 

 indifferent health, died at his residence, The Chalet, 4, Kings- 

 wood Koad, Upper Norwood, on Wednesday, July 31st, 1912, 

 at the age of eighty-three. 



By his will Mr. Hume left to the Trustees of the Museum 

 the collection of skulls and horns which forms the subject 

 of the present Catalogue. The following notice of the bequest 

 appeared in The Times of November 1st, 1912, and is 

 reproduced, with a few omissions and verbal alterations, by 

 the Editor's permission : 



" Taken in conjunction with Mr. Hume's gift in 1891, of 

 the bulk of his collection of similar objects, it constitutes 

 one of the most valuable acquisitions of the kind ever 

 received by the Museum. Apart from the collection presented 

 at various times during the first half of the last century by 

 Mr. Brian Hodgson, the Museum before 1891 was poor in 

 specimens of Indian big game, whereas it now possesses, 

 thanks to Mr. Hume, a collection of these objects which is 

 certainly unsurpassed and probably unrivalled. When 

 Mr. Hume gave the bulk of his collection to the Museum 

 in 1891, he reserved for himself a certain number of picked 



