Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/53

 It will be convenient here to notice Mr. Hume's work as an Ornithologist ; for his transfer in 1879 from Simla to the Revenue Board at Allahabad, not only closed a brilliant official career, but also dealt a disastrous blow to his scientific studies and explorations. In a letter among his private papers, he thus describes the lamentable situation : "In view to working out the Ornithology of the British Empire in Asia I have, during the last fifteen years, spent about ;f 20,000 in accumulating an ornithological museum and library, now the largest in the world, where Asiatic birds are concerned. To form this museum, and to collect data for the proper utilization of the materials thus accumulated, I have had for many years large exploring parties at work in the more inaccessible provinces of the Empire, and have myself, on the rare occasions when the exigencies of the public service have permitted me to take leave, joined in these explorations. The results of all this labour and heavy expenditure are in Simla. To move them is utterly out of the question. I have bequeathed them to the Indian Government on the sole condition of their undertaking the cost of their removal. My transfer to the North-West Provinces removes me permanently for the rest of my service from the vicinity of my museum, debars me from continuing to watch over its progress and utilize as they come in, by recording them in my ornithological journal (Stray Feathers), as I have done hitherto, the results of the explorations my parties are continually making." In addition to these definite losses to science, Mr. Hume's departure from Simla involved the temporary suspension of his great work on the "Game Birds of India," upon which he had already expended £4,000 ; also the publication of the scientific results of the