Thomas C. Jerdon

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Thomas Claverhill Jerdon^[1] (1811 - 1872) was a British physician, zoologist and botanist.

Jerdon was born in County Durham and studied at Edinburgh University. He became assistant-surgeon in the British East India Company, stationed in India and later Surgeon Major in the Madras Regiment.

Jerdon started collecting birds shortly after his arrival in India. He sent his collection to William Jardine for identification, but by the time they arrived at Jardine's house in Scotland they had become infested by moths. Jerdon trusted to his own identifications from then on, publishing 'A Catalogue of the Birds of the Indian Peninsula' for the Madras Journal of Literature and Science (1839-40). This included 420 species, almost doubling the list produced earlier by Colonel W. H. Sykes.

In 1852 he was promoted to Surgeon and assigned to the 4th Light Cavalry posted in the Central Provinces. He served in the Narmada and Saugor region during the 1857 mutiny. After peace was established he went on leave to Darjeeling. He was later transferred to the Government of India, and was placed on special duty for the purpose of writing his manuals on the vertebrates of India. In 1868 the manuals on Mammals and birds were published and the manuscript of the reptiles sent to press and on the 28th February he retired and went on tour to the Khasi Hills in Assam. In June 1868 he went to England and died at Norwood in 1872. After his death the proofs of the Reptiles volume went home. In 1874 several volumes with his original drawings of reptiles were auctioned by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge.^[2]

Jerdon's most important publication was The Birds of India (1862-64), which included over 1000 species in two volumes with the second volume in two parts. This work was dedicated to Lord Canning and Lord Elgin who supported the venture. He also wrote Illustrations of Indian Ornithology (1844), The Game Birds and Wildfowl of India (1864) and Mammals of India (1874). He had a wide interest in natural history and his studies include descriptions of plants, ants, amphibians, reptiles, birds as well as mammals. Jerdon was instrumental in the birth of the Fauna of British India series.

R. A. Sterndale mentions a note from Jerdon on an otter that he kept as a pet (probably at Tellicherry)^[3]

"As it grew older it took to going about by itself, and one day found its way to the bazaar and seized a large fish from a moplah. When resisted, it showed such fight that the rightful owner was fain to drop it. Afterwards it took regularly to this highway style of living, and I had on several occasions to pay for my pet's dinner rather more than was necessary, so I resolved to get rid of it. I put it in a closed box, and, having kept it without food for some time, I conveyed it myself in a boat some seven or eight miles off, up some of the numerous back-waters on this coast. I then liberated it, and, when it had wandered out of sight in some inundated paddy-fields, I returned by boat by a different route. That same evening, about nine whilst in the town about one and a-half miles from my own house, witnessing some of the ceremonials connected with the Mohurrum festival, the otter entered the temporary shed, walked across the floor, and came and lay down at my feet!"

[edit] Writings

• Jerdon, T. C. 1840 Cuculus himalayanus sp. n. Madras J. Literature and Science 11: 12-13
• Jerdon, T. C. 1842 Cuculus venustus sp. n. Madras J. Literature and Science 13: 140
• Jerdon, T. C. 1847 Illustrations of Indian Ornithology 1036 (September 4,1847)
• Jerdon, T. C. 1851 A catalogue of the species of ants found in southern India. Madras J. Lit. Sci. 17: 103-127
• Jerdon, T. C. 1853 Catalogue of Reptiles inhabiting the Peninsula of India. J. Asiat. Soc. 153
• Jerdon, T. C. 1854 A catalogue of the species of ants found in southern India. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2)13: 45-56
• Jerdon, T. C. 1863 The Birds of India. Volume I 1857 (May 30,1863)
• Jerdon, T. C. 1864 The Birds of India. Volume II, Part I 1895 (February 20,1864)
• Jerdon, T. C. 1864 The Birds of India. Volume III 1931 (October 29,1864)
• Jerdon, T. C. 1870 Notes on Indian Herpetology. P. Asiatic Soc. Bengal March 1870: 66-85
• Jerdon, T. C. 1874 The mammals of India: natural history. John Wheldon, London.

[edit] References

1. ^ His obituary in Ibis 1872 (p. 342) spells his name incorrectly as Thomas Caverhill Jerdon. This spelling is also found in M. A. Smith's Fauna of British India. Reptilia Volume 1.
2. ^ Smith, M. A. (1931) Fauna of British India. Reptilia and Amphibia. Volume 1
3. ^ Sterndale,Robert A., 1884. Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon

[edit] External links

• Biographies from Zoonomen
• Jerdon's ant publications
• Dates of publications of Jerdon's catalogue