Catalogue of mammals and birds of Burma / by the late E. Blyth ; with a memoir, and portrait of the author.

  • Edward Blyth
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Catalogue of mammals and birds of Burma / by the late E. Blyth ; with a memoir, and portrait of the author. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Curator had been repeatedly urged to supply it. The Council refers to his delay in performing this duty in their Report* 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 caunot 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 Burrnan 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. t J.B.A.S. xvii. pt. 2, p. 122. J Our common friend Robert Frith, whose name is of frequent occurrence in the Curator’s reports.
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