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Introduction. 



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Curator had been repeatedly urged to supply it. The Council refers to his 

 delay in performing this duty in their Beport* of 1848, while commend- 

 ing " his regularity of attendance and remarkable industry." His appli- 

 cation for increased pay and a retiring pension was referred to the Society 

 at large with the following guarded remarks: — "It must be admitted that 

 for any scientific man capable of discharging the duties on which Mr. Blyth is 

 employed, and of performing them with activity and zeal, for the advancement 

 of science, etc., the [monthly] salary of 250 rupees is a very inadequate com- 

 pensation. But the Council cannot but regard the present as an inauspicious 

 period to address the Honourable Court in furtherance of any pecuniary 

 claim. The diversion of the Oriental grant to so large an amount as has but 

 lately been brought to notice, cannot be regarded with indifference by them, 

 nor can it have disposed them to entertain with much favour any fresh 

 demand on their munificence preferred by the Society." The application was 

 then referred for report to the Natural History Section, and notwithstanding 

 the stout struggle made on his behalf in the Section, their report was 

 unfavourable to Blyth' s claims, which were finally negatived at the Julyf 

 meeting in 1848. 



In the following year Blyth published his Catalogue of Birds, which had 

 in fact long been ready for issue in a form which would have satisfied the 

 Council. It had been constantly kept back for the Appendices, Addenda, 

 and "Further Addenda," which disfigure the volume, and seriously detract 

 from its value as a work of reference. This habitual reluctance of his to 

 part with his compositions till he had embodied in them his latest gained in- 

 formation is conspicuous throughout his contributions, and it is in fact 

 partly due to this habit that these Burman Catalogues form a posthumous 

 publication. 



Blyth availed himself of every opportunity which offered of escape from 

 his closet studies to resume his early habits of field observation. Frequent 

 mention will be found in his reports of the little excursions into the country 

 which he thus made, and of the practical results obtained from them. The 

 geniality of his disposition and the large store of general information at his 

 command insured him a warm welcome in all quarters. One of his favourite 

 resorts was Khulna, on the edge of the Jessore Sunderbuns, where the indigo 

 factory of an intelligent and untiring observer J offered him a favourable 

 station for field pursuits. 



* J.B.A.S. xvii. pt. 1, p. 10. f J.B.A.S. svii. pt. 2, p. 122. 



X Our common friend Robert Frith, whose name is of frequent occurrence in the 

 Curator's reports. 



