xvi Introduction. 



its writer's last utterance. He had long been ailing, and in the autumn of 

 this year he became very ill, and went to Antwerp for a change. On his 

 return he called on me, feeling, as he said, better, though complaining of 

 great prostration. He seemed full of what, he had seen in the Antwerp 

 Zoological Garden, where he thought he had found another new species of 

 Ehinoceros. This was our last interview. Though nursed by a tenderly- 

 attached sister, his weakness increased, and he died of heart disease on the 

 27th of December, within a day or two of his 63rd birthday. 



More competent authorities than I can pretend to be have done justice 

 to the high intellectual powers which Blyth displayed from the outset of his 

 career as a naturalist ; to the wonderful capacity and accuracy of his memory, 

 which, unassisted by any systematic notes, assimilated the facts once stored 

 in it, and enabled him readily to refer to his authority for them ; to his great 

 power of generalization, and to the conscientious use which he made of it. 

 Abundant proof of the high respect with which his opinions were always 

 listened to, and of the careful consideration given to them even where they 

 were not accepted, is to be found in the published works of his brother natural- 

 ists. No higher testimony to his habitual scientific caution need be adduced 

 than that of Mr. Darwin, but it is equally borne by Jerdon throughout his pub- 

 lished writings. Gould* refers to him as " one of the first zoologists of his 

 time, and the founder of the study of that science in India." I confine myself 

 here to putting on record the tribute of an old and intimate friend, to the 

 excellent qualities of heart possessed by Blyth. The warmth and freshness of 

 his feelings which first inspired him with the love of Nature clung to him 

 through his chequered life, and kept him on good terms with the world, 

 which punished him, as it is wont to do, for not learning more of its wisdom. 

 Had he been a less imaginative and a more practical man, he must have been a 

 prosperous one. Pew men who have written so much have left in their writings 

 so little that is bitter. No man that I have ever known was so free as he was 

 from the spirit of intolerance ; and the absence of this is a marked feature in 

 all his controversial papers. All too that he knew was at the service of 

 everybody. No one asking him for information asked in vain. Among the 

 many pleasurable reminiscences of my own long residence in India, few are 

 more agreeable than those which recall his frequent Sunday visits to me. 



The Society are largely indebted to the three able Naturalists who have 

 lent their aid to the publication of these Catalogues. That of the Mam- 

 malia, with the exception of the Bats, was revised by Dr. Anderson last 



* ' Birds of Asia,' Pt. XXVI. Trochalopteron blythii. 



