David Douglas Cunningham. 



xix 



wider circle. This was done in two charming volumes, published by 

 Mr. Murray, in 1903 and in 1907. 



Throughout his Indian service Cunningham was called upon to take a 

 considerable part in the performance of such public duties as in England are 

 entrusted to men of leisure, but in our great Eastern dependency have to be 

 undertaken, amid their other labours, by hard-worked officials. Early in his 

 career he was appointed by the Governor-General a member of the Senate of 

 the University of Calcutta. During his residence in India he was at frequent 

 intervals a councillor of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. He was for many 

 years one of the trustees of the Indian Museum. More important still were 

 the services he rendered in connection with the Calcutta Zoological Garden. 



This institution, whether as regards the extent and variety of its collection 

 or in respect of the management and health of its inmates, holds a deservedly 

 high place among establishments of its kind. Cunningham's interest in 

 natural history had secured him the friendship of the late Dr. J. Anderson, 

 F.E.S., then superintendent of the Indian Museum and long the honorary 

 secretary to the committee of management of the Garden. The keen interest 

 which Cunningham's intercourse with Anderson led him to take in the 

 collection was of a practical kind, and in November, 1878, he was elected by 

 the committee a life-member of the institution " in consideration of his 

 numerous presentations to the garden." In the following year he was nominated 

 a member of the committee of management by the Lieutenant-Governor of 

 Bengal. Eive' years later he became honorary secretary in succession to 

 Anderson, and this post he only relinquished when, some years afterwards, 

 the Government of Bengal appointed him chairman of the committee. Among 

 the many improvements which marked his connection with the institution 

 none was greater than the provision, on his suggestion and in accordance with 

 his plans, of a research laboratory. The investigations conducted there 

 included, along with many by other workers, his own connected with snake- 

 venom, whose publication in 1895, 1897 and 1898 has already been mentioned. 



Cunningham's work as a teacher was characterised by exact knowledge, 

 clear exposition and singular width of outlook. His influence on his pupils 

 was marked and salutary. His constant aim was to train them to use their 

 powers of observation and to overcome the tendency, induced by a prolonged 

 course of literary instruction in a language not their own, to place too much 

 reliance on statements made in books. His influence on those so fortunate as 

 to know him was equally great. A cultivated artistic sense and a fine literary 

 instinct were in him combined with a methodical disposition of his time and 

 great sagacity of judgment. A keen student of philosophy, in which field he 

 was a follower of Kant, and a man of wide reading, especially in the history 

 of art and literature and in that of travel and discovery, intercourse with him 

 was felt to be a privilege. His charm of manner, serenity of disposition and 

 transparent singleness of purpose made him the centre of a circle of devoted 

 friends, who experienced in his company a sense of repose and were able 

 dimly to appreciate his singular ability to gain the confidence of birds and 



