A Himalayan Ornithologist

Book excerpt: This book describes the ornithological work of the remarkable naturalist, scholar and administrator, Brian Houghton Hodgson. Born in 1800, Hodgson was for many years British Resident in Katmandu, where he described or collected over 120 species of birds new to science. To document his discoveries, he trained a team of Nepalese artists to produce water-color plates for a projected work on the birds of the Himalayas. Though this was never completed, the superb collection of paintings remains and is now in the possession of the Zoological Society of London. Of the plates selected for this volume, most have never been published before.