BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOMAS EDWARD. 605 



were but fifteen or sixteen shillings per week. His wife helped him 

 efficiently ; she bound shoes, and received separate pay for it, but she 

 would often with her own earnings buy bottles for his insects, wood 

 for his bird-cases, powder and shot for his gun. None of his advising 

 friends ever helped him in this way. 



His expeditions were often accompanied by dangerous advent- 

 ures. On one occasion, as he was coming home in the morning, he 

 shot a martin, which fell upon the edge of a cliff. He clambered to 

 the spot, and, just as he was seizing it, it fluttered over, and in trying 

 to grasp it he went over himself. His gun fell out of his hand, and 

 lodged across two rocks. Edward came clown upon the gun, smash- 

 ing it to pieces, but it broke the force of the blow, and probably saved 

 his life. He had descended forty feet, and was wedged in between 

 two rocks, where he remained senseless until with great difficulty he 

 was extricated by two ploughmen and a fisherman, terribly sore and 

 bruised. He got home, but was unable to work, and had to sell more 

 of his collections to meet family expenses. 



Shortly after his return from Aberdeen, Edward made the ac- 

 quaintance of the Rev. James Smith, who lived about eight miles 

 from Banff, and who lent him some books that helped him to ascer- 

 tain the names of birds, and Mr. Smith also urged him to publish the 

 results of his observations. Edward replied, "I cannot write correct- 

 ly enough for the publishers." " But you must write," said Smith. 

 " You must note down your observations." Edward objected much, 

 but he nevertheless took to the work, and soon developed unusual 

 descriptive power. He wrote articles, from time to time, for the 

 Banffshire Journal, on various interesting objects, which had the effect 

 of directing general attention to natural-history subjects. Further 

 encouraged by his friend Smith, he began to write for the Zoologist, 

 giving an account of his discoveries, and of those habits and pecu- 

 liarities of animals which he had closely observed. At the end of 

 1855 we find an article of his in the Zoologist, entitled "Moth- 

 hunting, or an Evening in the Wood," and in the following year he 

 commenced in the same periodical a " List of the Birds of Banffshire, 

 accompanied with Anecdotes." This list comprised eight articles, 

 which were received with much favor, yet he never got a farthing for 

 any of his literary contributions ! 



It is worth while to note how he could write. Pie printed in the 

 Banffshire Journal an account of a very dangerous adventure he had 

 by getting trapped in the recess of a cliff from which there seemed to 

 be no possibility of escape in any direction. He says : " I sat down 

 to consider what was next to be done. While thus resting, I ob- 

 served a falcon (Falco peregrinus) sailing slowly and steadily along, 

 bearing something large in his talons. On he came, seemingly un- 

 conscious of my presence, and alighted on a ledge only a few yards 

 from where I sat. I now saw that the object he carried was a par-. 



