marvellous power of acquiring languages and devoted himself to the study of the literature of India. Had he lived he would have made valuable translations and annotations. He was transferred to Bengal, and died early from the effects of the climate. His name is best known by the poetry that he has left. Another botanist, whose name is perpetuated in an Indian plant, is Eoxburgh, who, like Leyden, passed on to Bengal, but not before he had done something for the history of the flora of Southern India. Harris, Balfour, Herklots, Shortt are a few more out of the many that adorned the Service.
The man who is perhaps best known to posterity is T. C. Jerdon. His name is familiar to every naturalist in England as well as in India. His catalogue of Indian birds is a standard work on the subject. In drawing it up he was greatly assisted by Walter Elliot, of the Civil Service. Jerdon was on the Nilgiris and in Travancore, the Deccan, Trichinopoly, and other parts of the Presidency. He was also in Madras in 1845, when he was secretary of the Madras Literary Society, which was founded by Sir John Newbolt. His peculiarities, the result of his intense love of his favourite pursuits, were well known, and many are the tales still told of him. One of his own relatives wrote thus in the columns of the 'Madras Mail' :
'Jerdon, the great naturalist and botanist, married my mother's cousin, and it is to my mother that I am indebted for the following reminiscences. To tell a snake story is to court incredulity, but I can vouch for the truth of these incidents. Jerdon and a companion were walking in the jungle one day, Jerdon, as usual, poking into every hole and bush. Suddenly he stooped down to the level of a bank and exclaimed, "Got him, by Jove!" adding quickly, "No, by Jingo! but he's got me." It appeared that he had seen a cobra slip into a rat-hole. The temptation
