Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The General, the Colonel and the Babbler



The Large Grey Babbler  is a bird which is present in large numbers in Mhow and other parts of Indore district. The taxonomic name of this common bird is Turdoides malcolmi. It was named by by Colonel W H Sykes (1790 - 1872)  in appreciation of support that he received from Major-General Sir John Malcolm  (1769–1833).

Colonel William Henry Sykes was an Indian Army officer, politician and ornithologist. He served in the army of the Bombay Presidency from 1804 to 1837. Major  General Sir John Malcolm is the man who founded Mhow cantonment in 1818 as a result of the Treaty of Mandsaur which was signed after the Holkars of Indore were defeated by the East India Co. at the Battle of Mahidpur (one of the decisive battles of the Third Anglo-Maratha war).

A retired  Army officer to whom I sent this tale  to had this to say, "Honouring a General by naming a babbler after him! I wonder whether the Colonel was paying the General a back handed compliment !"  

2 comments:

blue ocean said...

Hey... I am planning to write a blog or create a website about Mhow. I have also purchased this domain name http://www.mhow.com.

When I saw your blog, I thought that your might be interested about this idea on writing a blog about Mhow .

Let me know your thoughts.

Rgds
Ritesh

Dev said...

Hi Ritesh, as you can see I am already blogging about Mhow. But do drop me an email at dev.kumar.vasudevan@gmail.com
Regards
Dev