582 New Publications. 



Annals of Natural History, July and August, 1840. 

 Information respecting Botanical and Zoological Travellers. 

 It will give satisfaction to many of our friends to learn that letters 

 have been received from our valuable contributor Dr. Parnell. He 

 is now about to leave Jamaica, after a residence of nearly nine months, 

 during which time he has investigated much of the zoology of that 

 island. His entomological collections have suffered considerably from 

 insects, but in ornithology he states, " I have been more fortunate, hav- 

 ing obtained 140 species in a good state, several of which are very rare, 

 and two or three of them I suspect have never been before noticed. In 

 ichthyology I have been most successful, having obtained about 500 

 specimens." At the date of his letter (22nd March), Dr. Parnell was 

 about to sail for Cuba, whence he expected to return to Britain in No- 

 vember or December next. 



We have also letters from another gentleman, T. C. Jerdon, Esq., 

 Assistant Surgeon 2nd Madras Light Cavalry, who has been for some 

 years resident in India in the prosecution of his profession, and has 

 employed his leisure time in studying the Zoology of that country, 

 particularly its ornithology. Our parcel contains a partial result of 

 researches in the latter department in the first part of a " Catalogue of 

 the Birds of the Peninsula of India, with brief Notes on their Habits and 

 Geographical Distribution* ; " and notwithstanding the information con- 

 tained in the illustrated works of Hardwicke and Gould, and in the 

 valuable Catalogues and Papers of Franklin, Sykes, Hodgson, and 

 Eyton, several species among the Raptores are given as new. Mr. Jer- 

 don divides the peninsula into four great districts or divisions. 1st, 

 The Northern Circars, comprising a narrow tract of land (between 16° 

 and 20° N. lat.) from the sea-coast on the eastern side of the peninsula 

 to the Eastern Ghauts, by which it is separated from the Great Table- 

 land; 2nd, The Carnatic, including the whole of the country lying 

 south of the Northern Circars along the coast as far as Cape Comorin, 

 and bounded on the west by the Eastern Ghauts, except the Coimbotoor 

 district, where the eastern as well as western range is broken ; 3rd, 

 Western coast, including Travancore, Cochin, and Malabar, and compri- 

 sing a strip of land of various width lying between the sea on the wes- 

 tern side of India, and the range of Western Ghauts, which it in- 

 cludes ; 4th, The great central table land, including Mysore, the Bara- 



* Published in the Madras Journal of Literature and Science for September 1839. The Rap- 

 tores. 



