Allan Octavian Hume, C.B./"The Pope of Ornithology"
"The Pope of Ornithology."
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 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 was absolute accuracy. Every bird-skin had to have a ticket attached showing sex, colouring of soft parts, certain measurements, locality and date of shooting. No egg was added to his collection unless species, place, and date were recorded on the shell. In most cases one of the parent birds was sent also, so as to make sure of the identity of the eggs.
"He endeared himself to all who worked for him. His enthusiasm was infectious and his knowledge of his favourite subject marvellous. He was known familiarly among his fellow-workers as 'The Pope of Ornithology.' In his beautiful Simla home, Rothney Castle, there was a museum for the collection, which was the 'Mecca' for all of us who collected for him ; and none of us ever left his hospitable roof and his charming society without having learnt something new on the subject we were studying from our guide, philosopher, and friend.
"The notes on bird life, sent from all parts of India and worked up by himself, grew rapidly and filled many folios. The collection gathered together during some five-and-twenty years amounted to the enormous number of sixty-three thousand bird-skins and nineteen thousand eggs. Everything promised well for the production of one of the finest works on ornithology that could be brought out. But, alas I this great work which was so near completion was never to appear !
"During the winter of 1884, when Simla was under snow and Mr. Hume was down on the plains, his house was left in charge of some of his Indian servants. The precious and voluminous manuscripts were deposited in one of the museum rooms. When he returned in the spring he found to his horror that these invaluable and irreplaceable papers had been stolen and must have been destroyed. Nothing could be done, for there was no clue as to when the theft had been committed. It is supposed that it must have been the dastardly act of a discontented servant. It Was a truly crushing blow : the colossal work of over a quarter of a century thrown away ! The dream of his life had, as it were, vanished. There was nothing to be done. No hope was left that he would ever reap the reward he had laboured for many years to gain. The great book could never be completed. There was nothing left for him to do but give up the task.
"Few knew how deeply he felt having to come to this decision, for he said but little. The presence of his vast collection only served to constantly remind him of all he had lost ; he therefore determined regretfully to part with it. I believe he could have sold it for ten thousand pounds (less really than it was worth) to go to the United States. But he would not dream of selling it or allowing it to go anywhere but to his native land. In 1885 he made a truly noble gift of the eighty-two thousand birds and eggs (all in perfect condition and comprising two hundred and fifty types of newly discovered species) to the British Museum of Natural History in Cromwell Road. The princely offering was gratefully accepted for the nation. It was considered of such importance by the authorities that Dr. Bowdler Sharp, head of the Ornithological Department, was deputed to go to Simla, take it over, and bring it to London. All students of Indian ornithology bless the name of Hume when they go to work in the Museum.
"In 1872 he started at his own expense in Calcutta an ornithological quarterly journal, which he happily named 'Stray Feathers,' He personally edited it, and articles of great interest from his facile pen graced every issue. It proved to be most useful and popular, and was carried on up till 1899, when he gave it up as he was then living in England, and there was no one else to continue it. In 1873 he published a very excellent book, 'Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds' a standard work for all interested j in ornithology. A revised edition (bringing it up to date) ! was brought out by Mr. Eugene Gates (a leading authority on the birds of Burma) in 1889-90.
"In 1879 was published that splendidly illustrated work, 'The Game Birds of India,' in three volumes, with one hundred and forty-four coloured plates. Of this Mr. Allan Hume and Captain C. H. T. Marshall were the joint authors. But to Hume must be given the most praise for this book, seeing that a great number of the articles on the different species were from his pen. It was a book greatly needed by sportsmen, and its advent was hailed with delight. The only drawback was that, owing to the heavy cost of production, the edition was limited to one thousand copies. The result is that now it is almost impossible to obtain a copy.
"It was a great loss to ornithology when Hume gave up that science in despair. He has left behind him a name that will always be revered by students of the Indian avifauna. To divert his thoughts from the past and to occupy his time he took up horticulture with the same earnestness and thoroughness as he showed over ornithology. ^He erected large conservatories in the grounds of Rothney Castle, filled them with the choicest flowers, and engaged English gardeners to help him in the work. From this, on returning to England, he went on to scientific botany. But this, as Kipling says, is another story, and must be left to another pen."
In addition to this noble gift to the nation, Mr. Hume gave to the Natural History branch of the British Museum his unique collection of the heads and horns of Indian big game animals. Part of the collection was presented in 1891, and part bequeathed by will. On the 1st of November 1912 The Times, in the following terms, expressed its appreciation of this "unrivalled series of specimens" :
"Taken in conjunction with his gift in 1891, of the bulk of his collection of similar objects, it constitutes one of the most valuable acquisitions of the kind ever received by that institution. Apart from the collection presented at various times during the first half of the last century by Mr. Brian Hodgson, the Museum before 1891 was poor in specimens of Indian big game, whereas it now possesses, thanks to Mr. Hume, a collection of these objects which is certainly unsurpassed and probably unrivalled. When Mr. Hume gave the bulk of his collection to the Museum in 1891, he reserved for himself a certain number of picked specimens, and it is these that have now become the property of the nation.
"The collection, which embraces specimens not only from India proper, but from the Himalaya, Kuen-Lun, Pamirs, Burma, etc., was made at a time when the big game of many parts of this area was more abundant than is the case at the present day, and consequently includes finer examples of many species than are now obtainable. And it is this which constitutes its chief value and interest, as it would nowadays be quite impossible to bring together a similar collection. Mr. Hume never did things by halves, and when his collections of big game trophies and birds were made he had collectors or agents at work in all the countries accessible from India.
"Nowadays, it is almost superfluous to mention, sportsmen attach a high value to heads which are 'records,' or nearly such, in the matter of horn-length ; and it is quite obvious that as many specimens as possible of this class — as being the finest and handsomest of their kind — ought to be in the national collection. In specimens of this nature the Hume bequest is particularly rich, containing at least five which appear to be 'records' in their particular species, and many others which approximate more or less closely in dimensions to this standard.
"To particularize such specimens on the present occasion would be out of place, more especially as their dimensions are given in Mr. Rowland Ward's 'Records of Big Game.' It must accordingly suffice to state that among the species represented by unusually fine heads are the magnificent wild yak of Tibet, the chiru antelope, with its long V-shaped black horns, of the same area, the Mongolian, Yarkand, and Indian gazelles, the blackbuck of the plains of India, whose spiral horns are, perhaps, the most graceful of all Asiatic ruminants, the markhor goat and ibex of the Himalaya, the so-called ibex of the Nilgiris — which survives only as the result of special Government protection — the lordly gaur, or bison, as it is miscalled by sportsmen, of the Pachmarhi and other Indian hill-ranges, and the great buffalo of Assam. Of the latter animal, it may be mentioned, the Museum has long possessed the 'record' horns (and a wonderful 'record' at that), which were discovered during the eighteenth century in the cellar of a house in Wapping, and presented to Sir Hans Sloane, whose collections formed the nucleus of the British Museum. Wild sheep, too, are strongly represented, the chief species being the massive-horned Tibetan race of the argali, Marco Polo's sheep of the Pamir, whose horns, although less massive, form a longer and more open spiral, the smaller urial of the Punjab and Ladak, and the Tibetan bharal, which stands midway between sheep and goats.
"All the above belong to what naturalists call the hollow-horned ruminants, or those which alone carry true horns ; but the collection likewise includes some magnificent heads of deer, whose branching cranial appendages are properly designated antlers. Among these the place of honour belongs to the great so-called Sikhim stag, or shou, of which there are two magnificent heads, one being the actual record. Till Mr. Hume made his collection shou heads were very rare in Europe, and even now they are much thought of even in the neighbourhood of their own country, as is evident from the fact that a skin was presented by the Nepalese Government to the King during His Majesty's tour in India. Other species in the collection include the sambar, the chital, or spotted deer, and the barasingh of the plains of India, the thamin of Burma, remarkable for the unique form of its antlers, and the Yarkand stag, of which specimens have been unobtainable since the Chinese occupation of the country.
"To mount this unrivalled series of specimens adequately will, no doubt, be a matter of time, but when thus mounted and exhibited to the public they will form a magnificent display and a worthy monument to their former owner, by whose munificence the Indian collection of the Museum has been so signally enriched."