An introduction to Brian Houghton Hodgson

Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800-1894) is widely recognised for the great progress he made in describing the birds and mammals of Nepal, and in recognition of this, his name is linked to the names of several mammals and birds. Realising that Nepal was virtually unknown to Europeans, Hodgson devoted the 23 years (1820-1843) he was posted there to study its peoples, customs, architecture, languages, religion and natural history. In natural history, Hodgson concentrated on the birds and mammals of Nepal, the Himalayas in general and Northern India. He wrote more than 140 zoological papers, ranging from descriptions of single species to checklists of the fauna, and presented ZSL with his manuscript notes and drawings.

Very much a polymath with a range of interests, Hodgson was attracted to zoology and in an 1833 letter to his sister Fanny said "Zoology in the branches of birds and quadrupeds amuses me much".*

The rich biodiversity of Nepal is a tribute to its diverse climate, altitudinal variation and geography. In total 118 ecosystems have now been identified, and the country is home to some of the world’s most remarkable plant and animal species. Hodgson therefore had an amazing opportunity to collect and describe the animals found there.

Hodgson was successively between 1820 and 1843 Assistant British Resident, then Acting Resident and then from 1833 he was Resident. Once he left Nepal he spent a further 13 years in India, living in a bungalow he called Brianstone in Darjeeling. He was in Darjeeling from 1845 to 1858, when he returned to England.

ZSL is fortunate in having six manuscript volumes of his original bird drawings and extensive notes and two further volumes concerning mammals: circa 1078 pages on birds and 456 on mammals as well as much of his correspondence including letters from Joseph Dalton Hooker, Lord Stanley, P.L. Sclater, J.E. Gray, Archibald Campbell (see Hodgson Papers in our Archives Catalogue). Hodgson presented his manuscripts to ZSL in 1874.

Hodgson's Legacy of Drawings

Hodgson trained Nepalese artists to paint watercolours of the animals in the style of zoological illustrations and built up an enormous visual reference of pictures. Rajman Singh illustrated many of the drawings in the mammal volumes and accompanied Hodgson in Darjeeling. Tursmoney Chittakar is the name of another of the artists. 

While some paintings are finished, the manuscripts also contain sketches, notes and measurements like a field sketch book; yet almost always these talented artists have succeeded in producing superb images, which were then annotated by Hodgson with scientific and common names, an indication of the locality and reference number. Often they include some text in a Devangari script.

Typically each drawing has a caption giving Hodgson's unique species number, a scientific name, common local names, and locality. Additionally, there may be many separate figures on anatomy, and copious notes on both sides of the sheet, including tables showing the animal's measurements and weight. Hodgson recorded the day and month but seldom the year, so that accurate dating of the drawings can be difficult.

Hodgson described many animals for the first time; he discovered many others but their valid scientific names and descriptions are attributed to other zoologists owing to the difficulty in communications 170 years ago.

The Brian Houghton Hodgson manuscripts are primary research material containing unique, useful, first-hand and important information for bird and mammal biology and conservation.

All our manuscripts of Brian Houghton Hodgson have now been scanned and can be accessed via our online Library catalogue. The IDs numbers to type into the search field are: for birds ART10000105 and; for mammals ART10000106. The scans can be found at the end of the catalogue records. Lists of the mammal and bird species depicted and described can be found in the 'Addtional information' below.

Our thanks to The National Manuscripts Conservation Trust, the Mercers' Company, the Leche Trust, the Charles Hayward Foundation who funded the conservation and scanning of the volumes.

Additionally we have scanned all the 14 volumes of Animals of India by Samuel Richard Tickell (1809-1875). There is one volume on mammals, one on fish, one devoted to reptiles, crustaceans and insects, and the other 11 volumes are devoted to birds. They have been digitised and the scans can be accessed via our Library online catalogue. The PDFs can be found in catalogue record ART10000596. Moreover, Tickell was related to Hodgson by marriage. He visited Hodgson and influenced the artists working with Hodgson. 

*The life of Brian Houghton Hodgson by W.W. Hunter, London: John Murray, 1896 p. 79

Mammals

For almost 40 years Brian Houghton Hodgson studied the mammals of Nepal and Darjeeling and discovered 22 new mammal species. The manuscripts contain information about the type specimens for these new species, some of these detail are unpublished making the information contained incredibly useful. The type specimens are those on which the species description is based.

He described the distribution, behaviour and anatomy of the new species and many other mammals. Providing such details about behaviour and distribution was unusual at that time but it does mean that the manuscripts and drawings are incredibly useful today in providing information to compare the current distributions and monitor how these may have changed. Amazingly, he also recorded some migration details as well.

As well as being so informative and potentially useful, the drawings are delightful with their own charm and beauty. Do enjoy the few images below and look at the scans the whole of his two volumes on mammals in our online catalogue. 

Our library's top 5 Hodgson mammal drawings

Birds

Brian Houghton Hodgson's work on birds is his major achievement in zoology. He collected 9,512 specimens representing 672 bird species, 124 of being new science. Hodgson is credited with first descriptions of 80 bird species, while the rest are attributed to others who described species based on Hodgson's specimens; mainly the Gray brothers, John Gould and Edward Blyth.

As a result of his achievements, Hodgson's name is celebrated in the scientific names and common names of birds, and there is even a genus Hodgsonius.

His bird collections represent 3/4 of Nepal's total species, with his field descriptions being of particular use and interest as he was one of the first people to record such detail. With birds, he recorded behaviour and distribution as well as anatomy, meaning that the manuscripts and drawings are relevant today in providing information to compare the current distributions and monitor how these may have changed. Similarly, his manuscripts contain information about the type specimens for these new species, and some of these details are unpublished making the information contained incredibly useful. The type specimens are those on which the species description is based.

Our library's top 6 Hodgson bird drawings

Continuing Hodgson's work

ZSL is active in Nepal with many conservation projects there and on 26th February 2016, ZSL hosted a Symposium about conservation in the region.

ZSL has taken a number of steps to increase awareness of the manuscripts and their use, some of which are detailed in the mammals and birds "Additional information" sections of this page:

• Roberta Davies, a ZSL Fellow has been volunteering in the Library and has transcribed the first 10 pages of Volume 2 of birds as a 'taster' to give an indication of the contents. Please view the draft of Roberta's draft transcriptions of Volume 1 of Mammals and transcriptions of bird text. Please note that there is no punctuation in the manuscript, she has tried to make sense of the text but the writing is sometime difficult to decipher. She is currently transcribing the Hodgson correspondence.
• Another Fellow of ZSL has been through all the manuscript letters of Hodgson and listed them; he also moved them into archival quality envelopes and boxes. Roberta Davies has now transcibed these letters and the scans and transcriptions can be found in our Archives catalogue.
• The volumes have been used for the chapter entitled 'Zoology … amuses me much' by Ann Datta and Carol Inskipp in The origins of Himalayan studies: Brian Houghton Hodgson in Nepal and Darjeeling 1820-1858, edited by David M. Waterhouse.
• Puneeta Sharma, an MA paper conservation student at University of the Arts London, has been conserved a painting of a Chiru or Tibetan antelope as part of her 2014 MA project. This painting is separate from the manuscripts but forms part of our Hodgson collections. The species is named after Hodgson Pantholops hodgsoni
• Dr David A. Lowther, University of Durham has analysed Hodgson's collection of ornithology paintings and his work in the identification and classification of Nepalese birds, as part of his research into the development of zoology in Britain c.1820-1850. He has also written a blog for us on "Hodgson and the 'Zoology of Nipal'"
• David together with Ann Sylph, ZSL's Librarian and Mark F. Watson, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, wrote the paper Brian Hodgson's Tibetan Mastiffs: twice presented to the Zoological Society of London published in Archives of Natural History, October 2019, vo. 46, No. 2 : pp. 220-229