146 Memoir of Dr. T. C. Jerdon, by Sir Walter Elliot. 



" Century of Birds," but the difficulty of superintending the 

 execution of the plates at a distance from the Presidency, 

 and other obstacles, frustrated this design. 



In addition to his zoological pursuits, he now began to 

 occupy himself with botany, and acquired a very competent 

 acquaintance with the Indian flora. But he never published 

 any of the novelties he discovered, preferring to communicate 

 them to those more directly engaged in botanical pursuits. 

 One of them is thus described by Dr. Robert Wight, " I am 

 indebted to Mr. Jerdon for this interesting little plant 

 (Jerdonia indica, JR. W.), which, as forming the type of a 

 new genus, I have much pleasure in dedicating to the 

 discoverer ; an honour well merited by his extensive re- 

 searches in all branches of organic natural history. Though 

 botany is the last to which he has given his attention, it has 

 already reaped considerable advantage from his energetic 

 application to the study of plants."* 



When he had been about two years at Nellore, he was 

 transferred to the Presidency as Garrison Assistant-Surgeon 

 of Fort St. George, on the 25th October, 1844. Here he 

 entered on a new field. I had made a large collection of the 

 fish of the Bay of Bengal, and when he acted at the 

 government Dispensary in 1842, we identified about three 

 hundred species-f of these by means of the " Histoire des 

 Poissons, of Cuvier and Valenciennes, and Russell's Coro- 

 mandel Fishes. He now added considerably to the list, and 

 at the same time prosecuted his search after the less known 

 fresh-water kinds, frequenting tanks and streams. A list of 

 the latter, comprising 354 species, of which nearly one-third 

 were new, was printed in the Madras Journal in 1 848 ; 

 followed in 1851, by a paper entitled " Ichthyological 

 Gleanings," which, though somewhat meagre and imperfect, 

 enumerated 420 salt-water species. About this time, also, 

 he communicated to the same journal a " Catalogue of the 

 species of Ants found in South India," many of which were 

 new, " with the view," as he stated, " rather of stimulating 

 others to record their observations, than under a sense of the 

 value or completeness of the remarks contained in it," but 

 which, nevertheless, affords the best descriptive account of 

 this interesting family yet published. 



* Wight, Ioones Plant., Ind. Or., Vol. iii., No. 1352. 

 f Most of these are now deposited in the Museum of the Archaeological 

 Society of Hawick. 



