To B.H. Hodgson

13 Feb. 1845

Dear Sir
The Boxes of Birds have now been examined and divided into four collections thus

British Museum 352 Specimens
Collection No. 1 140 "

• No. 2 79 "
• No. 3 40 "
  Besides these are 52
  either evidently [?[ named or not named at all which are therefore of comparatively little use to any person. Pray indicate who is to have Series 1.2.3 I have kept every horn of the [Javai] but evident duplicates you will observe that I have now put aside to keep in the Museum a complete series of the Skulls and Horns of Mammalia and of the Bones of the Birds. I have not as yet done anything with regard to the more or less imperfect skeletons of the Mammalia which are evidently are not filled. For the Zoological Collection (as I told you when first I saw them) but I hope to have to communicate with you respecting them hereafter.
  If you will sign the inclosed order and return it to me I will send to Mr. Rees from the Drawings of Birds which I hear they have lately finished.
  Yours very truly
  J.E. Gray
  13 Feb 1845

To B.H. Hodgson
Long Port
Canterbury

23 April 1845

My dear Sir

The description of the Mice and Shrews were printed in the Annals but I have not received any separate copies so that I cannot send them to you. My brother sent the descriptions of the bird you indicated but they are to be printed in the Annals [Journal?] for May as they had no more room. I don't know what is [?] with respect to the Paper on Birds sent to the Zoological Society. We have not yet received the drawings of the Mammalia but that is not much importance as they can be added to the catalogues as soon as they arrive and as the Birds require much more time for their examination and comparison than I expected, the absence of this [head?] drawing have so far caused no delays I am going to Leyden [Leiden?] on the first of May for a few days and I shall take that opportunity to make some comparisons.

Yours Very Truly
J.E. Gray

[Note on back of letter]
1845
J.E. Gray
Papers printed by him on the [Murines?] and some Birds

British Museum

To Brian Houghton Hodgson

29 Jan 1847

My dear Sir

As we are sending some of the copies of the catalogues I take the opportunity of sending you some letters which have been [waiting?] here. I hope the catalogue will be satisfactory to you, there are some points on which we may differ but such differences elicit truth while easy compliances only perpetuate error. I have just had a visit from Mr. Grace who gave me an account of you. I have looked over his skins he has no Mammalia and only three kinds of Birds not in your collection. Blyth appears to have treated him as he did you as he passed Calcutta. Your skeleton(s) has caused us to go on collecting others and now we have three times as many as they have in the College of Surgeons and nearly as many as they have in Paris except in [?]. We are printing a catalogue of them and your specimens will there appear again as they will in my new catalogue of Mammalia and Birds now in the press. You will see by the catalogue what are the desiderata of Skin and Bones but I shall be very glad to receive good fresh skins of each species and they shall be duly stuffed and [protected?] from London dust [?] soon makes new ones requisite and desirable. I shall send you a list of the Drawings but we have not so many hands here as you have in India and these things take time. I should much like to have the Wild Horse and Ass. What is the Kiang? I shall have a fine work on antelopes for you shortly
Ever yours truly

J.E. Gray

Dec 15 1844

To the Trustees of the British Museum

My Lords and Gentlemen,

With reference to my recent letter to your address relative to my zoological collections and researches I have the honor to inform you that, my immediate return to India having just been decided on, I conceive it to be on many accounts most desirable that I should carry back with me my original Drawings as well as my Notes and Memoranda, leaving only my finished series of drawings together with the whole of my specimens in the possession of the Museum to be appropriated and distributed as already proposed.

2. Accordingly I now request that my first proposition to you, my Lords and Gents. may be modified upon this plan because, in order to enable me on my return to India to resume and complete my zoological researches with the greatest rapidity and effect I shall need the whole of my original drawings and Notes, while my departure is so near that no time is left for any further proceedings in conjunction with the proposed Nominee of the Museum than the transfer to him of the specimens; and, indeed, to ensure that transfer being satisfactorily made it had become indispensable that not a moment be lost in the selection and despatch to Canterbury of the said Nominee.
3. I beg leave therefore to solicit an early decision upon this point; for the specimens to be disposed of are exceedingly numerous and valuable and have been collected at so great a cost that it is most desirable their dispersal should be adjusted as far as possible before my departure.
4. Of the series of finished drawings which I propose to present to the Museum a considerable number have been lent to an Artist of the name of Howard who [proposed?] their publication but has now desisted from that intention I recommend that steps be immediately taken by the Museum to recover possession of these drawings which were lent to Mr. Howard after they had been deposited in the Museum to which they are now presented by me, their sole and absolute owner.
5. The small portion of the series which is unfinished, shall be transmitted by me from India as soon as may be, it being no longer possible to have them finished in London as before suggested by me.
6. I return to India with the full purpose of effectively completing those researches which my sudden departure thence so sadly interrupted, and, in order, to their completion in the most satisfactory manner, I beg leave to suggest that some competent officer of the Museum be placed in communication with me and be authorised and directed to be [concert/consort?] which was mentioned in the prior letter, it being my anxious wish still to carry out, with the sanction and support of the Trustees, the complete original idea of an Illustrated Fauna of Nepal and Tibet based on these drawings; and I would accordingly hereby solicit the separate favourable consideration of the Trustees for that eventual undertaking which with the patronage of the British Museum would be extensively aided by subscriptions in India where when by sudden departure dislocated all my plans these drawings had already attracted general admiration owing to their extraordinary Zoological accuracy and to the quality of collateral illustrations of the habits and manners as well as the structures of species which they embrace and the fruit of years of continuous toil aided by the unique and irrevocable opportunities

I have [the honor to be]
Yrs
B.H. Hodgson
Late Minister at The Court of Nepal

To the Trustees of the British Museum London

My Lords and Gentlemen
Before my return from India I presented to the British Museum a large series of zoological specimens collected in Nepal in the last [20] years and I at the same time submitted a series of Drawings made under my directions in Nepal. I have brought home with me from India further ample supplies of both specimens and drawings as well as some Memoranda and Notes (diminished unhappily by accidents on the way) relative to the animals collected and delineated. The whole constitutes a large mass of materials procured at great expense for the illustration of the Zoology of Nepal and of Tibet, and it is my wish, while making the British Museum the primary Depositary of these materials to procure its aid in such a disposal and use of them as may most effectively to further the interests of Science both by distribution and by publication. I am however aware of the rules of the British Museum and therefore solicit its counsel and advice upon the following propositions and suggestions which occur to myself.

1. One complete series of specimens (skins) and of drawings to be presented by me to the British Museum which institution shall return to me all duplicates already in its possession and shall appoint an officer to select from my fresh stores at Canterbury such further specimens and drawings as are required for completing its series.
2. The officer above named to give me his aid in selecting from my specimens already in the Museum and at Canterbury further series to be presented, as far as the specimens go. 1st to India House 2nd to Paris Museum 3rd to the Leyden Museum 4th to that of Canterbury 5th to other institutions of Great Britain till the specimens are exhausted
3. The same or other fit officer of the Museum to be appointed to examine with me my Notes and Memoranda as well as drawings with a view to publication if found advisable in such form and with such aid as to the Trustees may seem proper. Meanwhile, no public use to be made of either specimens or drawings without my consent.
4. The series of finished drawings being not quite complete, the museum to appoint some Artist to complete it from the original rough drawings in my possession and from which that series was copied

very little additional work is needed for the end in view

Gents
your ob[edien]t Servant
B.H. Hodgson

In consideration of the donation of these drawings and skins to the British Museum; the collection and preparation of which have been to me a source of very great expense I would respectfully ask the Trustees to give me aid from the public resources at their disposal such aid in the publication of a Fauna of Nepal and Thibet, as they may deem suitable or to recommend to the British Government to give my projected work that support which has recently been so liberally bestowed upon similar labours. Meanwhile no public use to be made of either drawings or specimens
I have the honor to be
My Lords and Gentlemen
Your ob[edien]t Serv.
Signed B.H. Hodgson

P.S. My Zoological collections embrace an extensive osteological series which as not being suitable to the British Museum it is my intention to present to the Royal College of Surgeons with a request of such aid and cooperation as may seem fitting in reference to the objects of the above letter

[Marginalia]

150 species of Mammals
650 of Birds besides fishes, snakes etc

other institutions subsequently specified as Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinbro, Dublin, Plymouth

Darjeeling 29th April 1847

To J. Forshall
Secy. British Museum
London

My dear Sir

I have duly received the twelve copies of the General Catalogue of the Mammals and Birds of Nepal, founded on my own Catalogues and corrected as to [Synonymes] by Mr Gray, by order of the Trustees of the British Museum wherein are deposited the specimens and Drawings. I request you will convey to the Trustees my sense of the high courtesy that has dictated the printing under their authority of this catalogue separately from the general one of the museum and to add that it shall be mu endeavour by transmitting fresh and superior samples of such specimens and drawings are still defective or missing to make the collection quite complete and this show myself duly sensible of the consideration that has been [?] towards me by this distinguished Patron of science and literature. With regard to the remaining copies of the Catalogue of Nepal Mammals and Birds respecting the disposal of which you consult me. I request that one copy having been sent to each of the public institutions abroad and home to which duplicated of the specimens were transmitted under the auspices of the Trustees, the rest m[a]y be distributed to the most eminent individual cultivators of zoology foreign and English, such as Mr Temminck and J. Cuvier and Geof. St Hilaire and Colonel H. Smith, and Professor Owen and Dr. Falconer and Mr. Yarrel and Mr. Ogilby Secy. Zool. Socty. and Colol Sykes India Director reserving only two copies to be sent to my father B. Hodgson Eqre Canterbury. This Trustees, have already approved the distribution to Institutions and will no doubt excuse the trouble now imposed of distribution to individuals, in consideration of my remote and disabling position. I have only to add the request that each copy distributed m[a]y have inscribed on the flyleaf "With Mr Hodgson's compts"
I remain
My dear Sir
Yours very truly

British Museum
To A. Gunther

20. 7. 1867

My dear Sir

Many thanks for your very kind note which settles the question. I dare say I shall make use of your memoranda in next month's Annals and Mag and send you a proof before it is printed. Shall I send it your present address? In this case do not trouble yourself with a reply to this or to Dursley.

Yours very truly
A. Surtees

To B.H. Hodgson

Lord Derby wrote to me that you have written to him shall I send off his box of Specimens? The list of Drawings only refer to The Mammalia

My Dear Sir
The list sent are correct in the numbers but the names as I am aware are ludicrously wrong but this arrived from the ignorance of the copyer but I thought you would be able to recognise them when you send them back the names shall be corrected. It was quite impossible to describe the new species until the whole collection was [sorted?] that the new and old might be compared and you appeared so fearfull that we should keep all that I concluded the sooner we could get the duplicates out of the Museum the better you would be please. The Mammalia their Heads and Horns exclusive of the of the more or less imperfect skeletons which are not yet unpacked have been sorted as follows
Skins Head and Horns
British Museum 170 195
Skins Skull and Horns
Collection n. 1 102 Ind. H
n. 2 78 ? [Leiden]
n. 3 48 Paris
n.4 37 Berlin
Collection Skull etc for Col. Surg 50 [58]
Horns for India House 45
Collection 5 - 7 For Mus. Frankf
6 - 1 [?] taken by Mr. Ogilby
Horns [Promican?] to Mus. Canterbury 2-

Bird Skins
British Museum 1753
No 1. Leyden M 655
2 Paris Leyden 536
4 Berlin 411
5 Frankfurt 352
6 321
7 290
8 259
No 9 237
No 10 213
11 205
12 169

The birds names are nearly finished I much fear that there are many errors in the numbering of them two very differing kind[s] having the same number and the Bills shew they evidently do not belong to the genus of the [?]

We have seen no more of Mr. Howard. Have you written to Mr Rees of the Zool. Soc. about the Drawing? I believe they have no or very few Birds [Bones] at the Zool. Soc. The anatomical museum I mentioned was Haslar near Gosport under the care of Dr. John Richardson the arctic traveller.
Yours ever
J.E. Gray