Memoir of Dr. T. G. Jerdon, by Sir Walter Elliot. 145 



obtained leave of absence to visit the Nilagiri Hills, where he 

 was married in July, 1841. Six months afterwards he was 

 appointed Civil Surgeon of Nellore, but did not join that 

 station till the middle of the following year, having in the 

 meantime been placed in charge of the Government 

 Dispensary at Madras. 



The wilder parts of the country between Madras and 

 Nellore are occupied by the Yanadis, a remarkable aboriginal 

 tribe, of semi-nomade habits, subsisting on the spontaneous 

 produce of the jungles, and possessing in consequence a 

 minute acquaintance with the forms of animal and vegetable 

 life around them. By their means Dr. Jerdon discovered 

 many new species, particularly of Batrachian and other 

 reptiles. To these he made large additions in after years, 

 including many new snakes, and subsequently embodied 

 them in a " Catalogue of Keptiles inhabiting Southern 

 India," which was published in the Journal of the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal, in 1853. But it was professedly only 

 " a brief and imperfect resume" prepared from " his drawings, 

 and of which detailed accounts would be drawn up as soon 

 as he should again have access to his collection." Several 

 years later (in 1870) he transmitted a farther paper to the 

 same periodical entitled, " Notes on Indian Erpetology," in 

 which he stated that " as some time would elapse before his 

 work on the reptiles of India could be published, he thought 

 it advisable to lay before the Society a short account of 

 some recent discoveries," referring at the same time to the 

 loss of the collections on which he had founded his former 

 catalogue, but which he was in the course of replacing by 

 fresh specimens. 



The favor with which his Catalogue of Birds had been 

 received, led him to commence a farther work on the same 

 subject during his residence at Nellore, under the title of 

 " Illustrations of Indian Ornithology," consisting of fifty 

 colored figures of new or little-known species, with ample 

 descriptions. The first number appeared at Madras in 1843, 

 in two sizes, octavo and quarto, but the whole was not com- 

 pleted till 1847. The plates are remarkably well executed, and 

 the figures depicted with much accuracy and spirit, some of 

 them having been contributed by an amateur friend*. He 

 contemplated the issue of a second series to complete a 



* Mr. S. N. Ward, Madras Civil Service. The foliage and foregrounds 

 were added by the late Captain S. Best, Madras Engineers. 



