LINNEAN SOCIETY OF I/ONDON. XXXV 



whom he sent some of the rarer birds to figure in his celebrated 

 work ; and about the same time he formed the acquaintance of Sir 

 "William Jardine and Mr. Selby, In 1826, on the formation of 

 the Zoological Society, he became one of its original Members, 

 and immediately took an active part in its proceedings, both as a 

 naturalist and as a man of business. His quiet unpretending 

 manners, his varied information, his plain method of stating facts, 

 and the clear precision of his inferences, the straightforward sim- 

 plicity of his character, and his unvarying command of temper, 

 rendered him on all occasions a most valuable adviser; and when 

 all these traits in his character had become fully known, it was 

 only with reluctance and in accordance with established rules and 

 regulations, that his name was ever omitted from the Council-lists 

 of either the Linnean or the Zoological Societies, Of the latter 

 he for a short time acted as Secretary, and was frequently one of 

 its Vice-Presidents ; and he was also for a long period Treasurer 

 of the Entomological Society, of which he was a warm supporter. 

 On the death of Mr. Eorster in 1849, he was elected Treasurer of 

 the Linnean Society, and continued to fill that ofiice, I need not say 

 how satisfactorily to the Society, together with that of one of its 

 Vice-Presidents until his death. So early as 1825, Mr. Yarrell had 

 already formed a considerable collection of British Birds and their 

 eggs, which he continued in after-years to increase, adding to them 

 at a later period a collection of British Fishes. These collections 

 served as the basis of his two great works, the one completed in 

 1836, under the title of * A History of British Fishes,' and the 

 other in 1843, under that of * A History of British Birds.' A 

 second edition of the former was published in 1841, and a third 

 edition of the latter in 1856. These two works, which contain 

 the results of his long-continued observations in the fields and in 

 the woods, by the stream, on the coast, and on the open sea, of 

 his patient and unwearied researches in the closet, and of a careful 

 course of reading, form, and will long continue to form, the text- 

 books of British Naturalists in the two important departments 

 to which they refer. The ' History of British Fishes ' is further 

 remarkable as the earliest published, and consequently may be 

 regarded as the model of that fine series of works on the Natural 

 History of the British Islands of which Mr. Van Voorst has been 

 the publisher, and which have contributed so essentially to extend 

 and popularize the study of nature among us. Of the wide popu- 

 larity of these two ' Histories,' no better proof could be adduced 

 than the fact, which I have the authority and permission of Mr. Van 



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