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THE INDIAN BUTTERFLIES IN THE TRURO MUSEUM. 



By HENRY CROWTHER, Curator of the Royal Institution of Cornwall. 



One of the most pleasing duties which the Curator of 

 a Museum has, is the keeping green of the memories of the donors 

 to the Institution under his charge. Such a task is mine to day. 



Anyone taking up the Journals of the Royal Institution of 

 Cornwall from 1844 to 1850, cannot fail to be struck with the 

 many and valuable gifts of Greneral Jenkins, of Assam, so 

 numerous indeed that, that gentleman may be considered as the 

 largest benefactor the Society has known to its Museum The 

 objects he gave were of high value, and rare. Broadly, they 

 fall, under three classes — skulls, birds, and butterflies; not of 

 the value of the skulls, nor of the variety of many of the birds, 

 do I intend to speak to day, but of the butterflies I am wishful 

 to say something, as in the course of next year they will become, 

 in all probability, a centre of attraction in our Museum. 



We are favoured by having in Truro, dwelling in our midst 

 for a short time, the Rev. W. A. Hamilton, a collector and 

 specialist of the same kinds of butterflies which Greneral Jenkins 

 sent to this Institution in 1844, 1846, 1847, and 1848, and we 

 have to thank this gentleman for his kindness, in naming the 

 Indian butterflies in the Museum for us. If these butterflies 

 had been described when they were sent, instead of resting 

 unnoticed in our cases for a period of nearly half a century, 

 the Museum of this Institution would have been fortunate in 

 possessing many of the original types of Indian butterflies, 

 as one-third of them have been described as new to science 

 since they were sent here by Greneral Jenkins. One is convinced 

 in looking through the collection that the rarity of some were 

 known to the donor, for in many cases they are named generically, 

 and the words nov. sp. added ; in other cases marked nov. sp. simply ; 

 the pity is the donor did not give them some specific name, 

 knowing them to be new species, and gain the credit due to himself. 

 It is too late in the day to recover this honour for General Jenkins, 

 but as a Society, we can issue a list of the names of the butter- 



