,So 



NATURE 



[Sept. 2, 1875 



i ournals and periodicals. I trust that Mr. Edward Newton, who 

 has had so many opportiu.itics of acquiring information on this 

 subject during his Colonial Secretaryship at Mauritius, and :has 

 so well used these opportunities, may shortly have leisure to 

 devote to this task. His labours to recover the skeleton of 

 Pezophaps, in which, I am pleased to think, he was aided by a 

 grant from this Association, are well known, as is likewise the 

 excellent memoir by himself and Prof. Newton, in which the 

 result of his labours was given to the world. Nor must I omit 

 to mention Prof. Owen's dissertations on the extinct fellow-bird 

 of Mauritius, recently published by the Zoological Society. 



As regards the recent ornithology of these islands, we have 

 nothing later to refer to than Hartlaub's little work on Mada- 

 gascar, noticed above, which includes what was then known of 

 the avifauna of the Mascarenes. 



The neighbouring group of the Seychelles was visited by 

 Mr. Edward Newton in 1867, and several new and most 

 interesting species of birds obtained there. A complete account 

 of the ornithology of these islands was given by Mr. Newton in 

 the "Ibis" for 1867. Since that period Dr. E. P. Wright, 

 formerly an active member of this Association, has made a 

 scientific excursion to the Seychelles, with a view, as was 

 generally understood, of preparing a complete monograph of 

 the [fauna and flora of these interesting islands. It is much 

 to be regretted that this very desirable plan has not yet been 

 accomplished. 



III.-INDIAN REGION. 



Of the extensive and varied Indian Region I will now proceed 

 to say something under the subjoined heads : — 



1. British India. 



2. Central and Southern China. 



3. Burjnah, Siam, and Cochin. 



4. Malay Peninsula. 



4«. Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 



5. East-Indian Islands. 



6. Philippine Archipelago. 



I. British India. 



For British India Dr. Jerdon's well-known series of zoological 

 handbooks was intended to supply a long-slanding want ; and 

 it is a great misfortune that his untimely death has interfered 

 with their completion. The three volumes on Birds were 

 finished in 1866, and one on Mammals in 1867. Of the 

 volume on the Reptiles and Batrachians a portion, I believe, 

 was actually in type at the time of his decease ; but of the Fishes 

 no part, as far as I know, was so much advanced. P"or the 

 Reptiles, therefore, we must for the present refer to Dr. 

 Giinther's "Reptiles of British India," published by the Ray 

 Society in 1864. Indeed, as regards India, any future account 

 of these animals must, in any case, be founded upon the basis of 

 that excellent and conscientious work. For the Indian fishes 

 generally there is at present no one authority, though Dr. Day, 

 author of the " Fishes of Malabar " and of numerous other papers, 

 is understood to have in preparation a general work on this sub- 

 ject, which his office of Inspector-General of Indian Fisheries 

 has given him excellent opportunities of studying. Complete 

 lists of both the freshwater and marine species of India are given 

 in the appendices to Dr. Day's two " Reports on the Fisheries 

 of India and Burmah," published in India in 1873. 



But although aur wants as regards the Indian Vertebrates will 

 probably be supplied in this way, it would be much more satis- 

 factory if the Indian Government would select a successor to 

 Dr. Jerdon, and place under his control the necessary means 

 for ; the preparation of a series of zoological handbooks for 

 India. There is no reason why botany should be more favoured 

 than zoology in this matter ; and I believe it is only the greater 

 energy of the botanist {that in this, as in other cases, has given 

 them the start. New editions of Dr. Jerdon's Mammals and 

 Birds are both necessary to bring our knowledge up to date, and 

 the original editions are long out of print. There can be no 

 question as to the great impetus to the study of natural history 

 in India that has already followed on the publication of these 

 handbooks ; and it will be a great misfortune to science if our 

 Indian rulers fail to continue the good work. They have only 

 to select a competent editor for the series, and to place the 

 necessary funds temporarily at his disposal. The sale of the 

 works would in the end recoup all the necessary expenses. 



Amongst more recent contributions to our knowledge of 

 Indian ornithology, which, under the influence above referred 

 to, have been especially numerous, I can now only stop to call 



attention to a few. Mr. Allan Hume, C.B., has been specially 

 active, and has published numerous papers in his queerly-titled 

 periodical " Stray Feathers," which is exclusively devoted to 

 Indian Ornithology. Amongst them the articles on the birds 

 of Scinde and those of Upper Pegu are of special interest. 

 Mr. Iloldsworth's most useful "Synopsis of the Biids of 

 Ceylon," lately published in the "Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society," is also of great value, more especially as Ceylon 

 was omitted from the scope of Dr. Jerdon's work. Nor must 

 I omit to mention Major Godwin-Austen's series of papers on 

 the ornithology of the newly-explored districts on the north- 

 eastern frontier, which contains so much of novelty and 

 instruction. 



As regards the Testudinata of India, we may shortly expect a 

 complete account of them from Dr. John Anderson, who has de- 

 voted much time and toil to their study. His magnificent series 

 of drawings of these animals, from living specimens, I have had the 

 pleasure of inspecting ; and I trust sincerely that some means 

 may be found of reproducing them for publication. Such a 

 work would vastly increase our knowledge of this very difficult 

 group of animals. 



2, Central and Southern China. 



In speaking ot Northern China I have introduced the names 

 of the two great modern zoological discoverers in China, Mr. 

 Robert Swinhoe and M. le Pere David. Mr. Swinhoe's article 

 on the "Mammals of China," recently published in the 

 Zoological Society's "Proceedings" gives a complete list of 

 the species known to him to occur south of the Yang-tze. It 

 includes those of the great island of Formosa, which is 

 essentially part of China, although it possesses some endemic 

 species, and which was a complete terra incognita to naturalists 

 before Mr. Swinhoe's happy selection as the first British Vice- 

 Consul in 1861. Mr. Swinhoe's last revised catalogue of the 

 Birds of China, published in 1871, has been already referred to. 

 He is now at home, unfortunately in ill health, but is by no 

 means idle on his bed of sickness, and has in contemplation, 

 and, I may say, in actual preparation, a complete work on 

 Chinese Ornithology, for which he has secured the co-operation 

 of one of our most competent naturalists. 



The still more remarkable discoveries of Pere David have 

 revealed to us the existence on the western outskirts of China, 

 or on the border-lands between China and Tibet, of a fauna 

 hitherto quite unknown to us, and apparently a pendant of the 

 Sub-Himalayan Hill-fauna first investigated by Hodgson. In 

 his recently completed " Recherches sur les Mammifere?," 

 already referred to, M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards has given us a 

 complete account of M. David's wonderful discoveries among 

 the Mammals of this district. M. David's birds were worked 

 out by the late Jules Verreaux, and the novelties described in 

 the " Nouvelle Archives," but no complete list of them has yet 

 been issued. In herpetology, I believe, M. David has also 

 made some remarkable discoveries, amongst which, not the 

 least assuredly, is the discovery of a second species of gigantic 

 Salamander * in the mountain-streams of Moupin. 



3. BURMAH, SlAM, AND COCHIN. 



I speak of these ancient kingdoms, which occupy the main 

 part of the great peninsula of South-eastern Asia, principally to 

 express my surprise at how little we yet know of them. There 

 are several good correspondents of the Jardin des Plantes in 

 the French colony of Saigou, who have, I believe, transmitted 

 a considerable number of specimens to the Museum d'Histoire 

 Naturelle, but beyond the descriptions of a certain number of 

 novelties we have as yet received no account of them. The 

 two philosophic Kings of Siam appear not yet to have turned 

 their attention to biological discovery, although there is certainly 

 much to be done in the interior of that State, with whicla ths 

 late M. Mouhot, had his life been spared, would certainly have 

 made us better acquainted. As it happens we have only one or 

 two published memoirs upon the results which this unfortunate 

 naturalist achieved. 



Lower Burmah now forms part of British India, and will be 

 doubtless well explored. As regards Burmah proper and the 

 Shan-States, our Indian legislators appointed a most efficient 

 naturalist to accompany the Yucan Expedition of 1868; but 

 when he returned, refused or neglected to provide him with the 

 facilities to work out and publish his results. I rejoice, how- 

 ever, to learn that this error has been to a certain extent remedied, 



* Sieholdia, Davidiana, Blanchard. 



