Brian Houghton Hodgson
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Brian Houghton Hodgson (February 1, 1800 - May 23, 1894) was an English civil servant, ethnologist and naturalist.
Hodgson was born at Prestbury, Cheshire. At the age of seventeen he travelled to India as an official of the British East India Company. He was sent to Katmandu in Nepal, becoming British Resident in 1833. He studied the Nepalese people, producing a number of papers on their languages, literature and religion. He also studied the zoology of the country, amassing a large collection of mammal skins which he later donated to the British Museum. He discovered a new species of antelope which was named after him, the Tibetan Antelope Pantolopus hodgsoni. He also discovered 39 species of mammals and 124 species of birds which had not been described previously, 79 of the bird species were described himself. The zoological collections presented to the British Museum by Hodgson in 1843 and 1858 comprised of 10,499 specimens. In addition to these, the collection also included an enormous number of drawings and coloured sketches of Indian animals by native artists under his supervision. Most of these were subsequently transferred to the Zoological Society of London.
Hodgson resigned in 1844 and returned to England for a short period. In 1845 he settled in Darjeeling and continued his studies of the peoples of northern India. In 1858 he again returned to England and settled in the Cotswolds.
Hodgsonia is a genus of cucurbits named after Hodgson.
[edit] References
- Barbara and Richard Mearns - Biographies for Birdwatchers ISBN 0-12-487422-3
- Lydekker, R. (1902) SOME FAMOUS ANGLO-INDIAN NATURALISTS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY .Indian Review Vol.3:221-226
