1836.] Miscellanea. 433 



about 500 birds and tbeirs. They are the work of native artists ; but 

 artists most carefully trained by myself to the observation and faithful 

 delineation of all significant particulars : and each drawing has been 

 compared with, and corrected by, several fresh specimens. As works 

 of art, the drawings are very good indeed : and, as subservient to the 

 illustration of natural history, they are inimitably correct and exact. 

 My notes are a running comment on the several species of each bird 

 and beast; catching, with opportunity, such traits of structure or 

 habits as the successive occasions of examination offered to me. 



" I am not a professed naturalist, far from it : but every intelligent 

 man, who uses his eyes and ears in India, may learn more of its Natu- 

 ral History, than all books can tell him. And, as I have said, I propose 

 to procure professional aid of the first kind in regard to those branches 

 of the subject which call for it. My wish is to marry, my opportuni- 

 ties to competent European skill; and I anticipate from the union 

 Something more than such a Hortus Siccus as Shaw, Latham, &c. &c* 

 have presented to the public, as the History of animate Nature. 



" I cannot yet say what the book will cost, because neither the style 

 nor the extent of illustration has yet been fixed ; and I could wish to 

 refer the former to the fancy of my subscribers. Shall I publish the 

 drawings separate and in elephant folio, after the manner of Gould's 

 Century: or conjunct with the text and in quarto, after the manner of 

 Richardson's American Fauna? Let my subscribers say; and let 

 them all know that the putting their names now on the subscription 

 list, shall in no respect bind them to the contract, provided they dis- 

 approve the cost of the work after that cost has been declared. It 

 cannot now be declared ; but a subscription list is wanted to encourage 

 the booksellers to undertake; and the larger the subscription, the 

 cheaper the book ! The work to me is, and has been, a pure labour 

 of love, upon which I have necessarily spent, and still must, a deal of 

 money. I am willing, too, to assist the publisher with a donation of 

 3,000 Rupees. But that will be a drop in the ocean, and subscription 

 is indispensable." 



We submit the following on the subject of the Mackenzie MSS. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE MADRAS JOURNAL OF LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 

 SIR, 



Perceiving that in a note at p. 173 of your valuable Journal for July 

 last, you have referred to a subject which formed part of a brief conver- 

 sation with you, that is, the Mackenzie Manuscripts, belonging to the 

 Asiatic Department of the Madras Literary Societij, I am apprehen- 

 sive that I might be committing you in the judgment of your readers, 

 if I maintained an entire silence on the subject. For the present there- 



