

» 036 Lord Walden on the late Colonel Tickell’s 
XX XII.—WNotes on the late Colonel Tickell’s manuscript Work 
entitled “ Illustrations of Indian Ornithology.” By AxtTuHuR, 
Viscount WALDEN. 
(Plates IX., X.) 
Amone the books of the Zoological Society’s library is to be 
found the manuscript work alluded to. It was presented to 
the Society by the late Colonel Tickell in 1874*, failing 
health and obliterated sight having prevented him from car- 
rying out the cherished object of his later years, its publication. 
On Colonel Tickell’s career as an ornithologist it is not my 
intention now to enter. An obituary by an old friend was 
published last year+. Suffice it to say that he belonged to_ 
that band of zoologists who, more than forty years ago, com- 
menced in India the then much neglected study of natural 
history, and who worshipped as simple and single-minded de- 
votees in the temple of nature, and not for their own self- 
glorification. Beyond a couple or so of paperst, I am not 
aware that he published in any scientific periodical any ob- 
servations on birds. His collections were generally sent to 
Blyth at Calcutta, some of the examples with MS. titles at- 
tached, under which that able zoologist usually made them 
known in the pages of the ‘ Proceedings’ of the Asiatic So- 
ciety of Bengal§. Being gifted with a ready pencil and a 
facile brush, Colonel Tickell, in most instances, made coloured 
drawings of the animals he secured ; and in the course of time 
he had accumulated many drawings, together with copious 
notes relating to the species he had captured or observed. 
Some of his first efforts were lost, including several sketches 
without which, it is to be feared, one or two of his earlier 
species must remain unidentified. A part of the materials he 
brought to England were thrown together and form the work 
* P.Z.9. 1874, p. 667. 
+ ‘Field’ newspaper, June 1875. 
t J. A.S. B. 1883, pp. 569-583, 1859, pp. 448-456; Ibis, 1864, pp. 173- 
182. His later articles in the ‘Field, subscribed Sats the pseudonym 
of “Ornithognomon,” are probably well known to the readers of the 
‘ Field.’ 
§ Not always. Conf. Tickell, Ibis 1863, p. 111. 

