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XII. — Review. — Illustrations of Indian Ornithology* 

 No. 1 to be completed in 4 JSTos. 

 By T. C. Jerdon, Esq. 

 J. B. Pharaoh, Madras 1843. 



Until of late years the period of British supremacy in India has 

 been little marked by attention to scientific research. The French 

 with smaller means and a more confined range were earlier in the 

 field ; and the frequent recurrence of the trivial name Ponticerianus 

 marks how well they seized the opportunities afforded them of 

 describing some of the more familiar natural forms. It was how- 

 ever less from defect of observation than "from absence of means of 

 publication that English naturalists appear so far behind. The re- 

 corded observations and drawings of Doctor Hamilton Buchanan 

 embraced every branch of Natural History and are equally remark- 

 able for their accuracy as their extent. But from want of patro- 

 nage they have never seen the light. His stores are even believed 

 to have served as the unacknowledged materials for less laborious 

 observers. But latterly a more honorable feeling has prevailed, and 

 his merits have been acknowledged and proclaimed by McClelland, 

 Blyth and other recent naturalists. 



The work now before us is an honorable contribution both to the 

 science and the art of southern India. Mr. Jerdon early distinguish- 

 ed himself as a profound r\nd accurate observer and his Catalogue of 

 the Birds of the Peninsula in the preceding Nos. of this Journal is 

 one of the most complete and useful descriptive lists that has ever 

 appeared. The 1st No of the present work seems intended to follow 

 out the same design by adding Illustrations of the new and more re- 

 markable forms embraced in the Catalogue. They are published in 

 two sizes 4to- and 8vo — the larger size being more accordant with the 

 usual form and pretension of such publications, — the smaller more 

 handy and easy of reference and with the additional advantage of 

 being fitted to bind up with the original Catalogue. But in both the 

 figures are exactly the same. In execution and coloring they chal- 

 lenge a comparison with the best illustrated works that, have issued 

 from the European press. Yet with the exception of the back and 

 fore-grounds, the perches &c. for which Mr. Jerdon has been indebted 

 to an amateur friend, the whole appears to be the performance of Na 



