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

  • Blyth, Edward, 1810-1873.
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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    scientific ardour supported him in maintaining against the most depressing obstacles. That nothing came of this memorial is due probably in some measure to the movement which commenced in 1857 for transferring our collections to an Imperial Museum, but mainly to the great convulsion which shook our empire in that year. I find no record in our Proceedings of any reply having been made to our recommendation, and the negociations for the foundation of the new museum were not resumed for some three years. Blyth made a short tour in the N.'W'. Provinces in July, 1856. He spent some six weeks in Lucknow, Cawnpore, Allahabad, and Benares. Oude had just been annexed, and the sale of the Royal Menagerie at Lucknow had been determined on. The tigers were the finest caged specimens in the world, and to one who understood their value in the European market, the inducement to buy and ship the animals was irresistible. A German friend joined in the speculation, and found the necessary funds. Blyth was to do the rest, and as no competitors offered, he bought the bulk of the collection for a trifle. Eighteen magnificent tigers were sold at 20 rupees (£2) a head! Some casualties occurred on the passage down the river; but his collection, when exhibited in Calcutta, contained sixteen tigers, one leopard, one bear, two cheetas, three caracals, two rhinoceroses, and a giraffe, which carried a saddle and was daily ridden. Difficulties unfortunately occurred in finding- ships for the transport of the animals, and their detention in Calcutta caused further casualties and heavy charges, which his partner would not face. The speculation collapsed, but one of the tigers which reached England realized £140. In December, 1857, Blyth had the misfortune to lose his wife. His short married life had been of the happiest, and the blow fell heavily on him. His letters to his sister for the early months of 1858 are painful to read. The shock proved too much for him, and brought on a serious attack of illness; it threatened paralysis of the heart, and he seems to have been subject to partial returns of similar attacks for the rest of his life. His health too suffered much from the isolation imposed on him by his straitened means, and from want of proper exercise. Some distraction for his thoughts was luckily afforded at this time by the opening up of a new fauna in the Andaman Islands, which Dr. Mouatt had been sent to report on before then- occupation as a penal settlement. To this Report Blyth contributed an in¬ teresting chapter on the /oology of the Islands, so far as it was then known. The China expedition of I860 was considered both at home and in India a good opportunity for obtaining information regarding the natural history of