THE IDENTIFIED DUCK 211 



abortive booklets ; but the structure seems to be much 

 the same in all.* 



He often quoted his old friend Hudlestone, who 



' used to declare that an identified duck's was the most 



valuable of eggs in consequence of which he got the 



nickname of ' The Identified Duck ' (for we valued him) 



and there is a good deal of truth in it." 



When he was collecting materials for his " Bustard 

 in Britain " (a book that never saw the light), any refer- 

 ence to the bird in however obscure a book was traced, 

 if possible, to its source and its accuracy or otherwise 

 tested. 



I have lately been much interested by corroborating 

 in a minute point the story of an old man, one Chafin, 

 who in 1818, being then about eighty-four years of age, 

 published a book on Cranbourn Chase, wherein he says 

 that in November, 1751, he saw and shot at near Andover 

 25 Bustards, and winds up by saying " In two or three 

 days after I set off for Cambridge " (to account for his 

 not renewing his attempt on their lives). A reference 

 to the Residence book of Emmanuel College, at which 

 Chafin was then an undergraduate, shows that he returned 

 on the 4th Nov. 1751, so that his encounter with the 

 Bustards would have been on the 1st or 2nd of that 

 month and year ! f 



Questions of all kinds more or less connected with 

 Natural History were constantly sent to him, such as 

 the death-song of the Swan, the winter transformation 

 of the Cuckoo, the hibernation of Swallows, and so on. 

 One of these hardy annuals was the Great Black Wood- 

 pecker, which was from time to time reported as having 

 been seen in some part or other of Britain, but never to 

 Newton's satisfaction. 



* Letter to J. A. Harvie-Brown. October 7, 1906. 

 t Letter to Col. H. W. Feilden, December 8, 1884 



