Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/54

 Yarkand expedition, which he was editing, had to be abandoned. It may be added that, in order to accommodate his Ornithological Museum, he had spent £15,000 on Rothney Castle, his beautiful house at Simla. In the following narrative, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall, of the Indian Army, himself a high authority on Ornithology, and collaborator in the "Game Birds of India," bears witness to the supreme importance of Mr. Hume's work in this branch of natural science :

"Allan Octavian Hume was beyond all doubt the greatest authority on the ornithology of the Indian Empire. He, as it were, succeeded Dr. Jerdon, who brought out an excellent book on the Indian avifauna some fifty odd years ago. From the time he began to take an interest in bird life in the early 'sixties he never spared himself, intellectually, physically, or financially, in his endeavours to accumulate material for the great work, 'The Birds of the Indian Empire,' which it was his ambition to give to the world. All his spare time, when free from his official duties, was devoted to forwarding this object.

"For many years he was Commissioner of Inland Customs (known as the Salt Department) in the days when the great Salt Hedge lay across India. This was guarded by a large staff of officials to collect the tax on the salt which was taken through the various gates. Many of these, both English and Indian, became his active and useful helpers. His inspection duties took him all over India. Wherever he went he made a point of endeavouring to obtain recruits and of persuading people he met to interest themselves in ornithology. With his usual generosity he was always ready to help those who could not afford to collect. The result was that he had more than fifty willing helpers between Cape Comorin and Peshawar and from Nepal to Gujarat, as well as in all parts of Burma. One thing he insisted on