OBITUARY. 349 



ter myself we shall be correspondents as long as we both live. Your verj 

 generous disposition suits me, and I shall be much mortified if I cannot 

 make you proper returns for whatever you send me. You will allow me a 

 little time, and I will do my best endeavours to pick some things out of this 

 collection that will please you. The Manakins are the most elegant birds 

 I ever saw, and your taste in the disposition of them is most exquisitely beau- 

 tiful, you have set us on our mettle, as I tell you honestly I have not, among 

 all my cases any so attractive to my visitors as these. * * To make my re- 

 marks on all the articles you have sent me would exceed the bounds of a 

 letter; but this I assure you, I never received so generous a present from any 

 one since I began to collect, though I have frequently had a right to expect 



great matters. Our friend, Mr. , sent me the other day a cargo (having 



been a night or two with me, and expressed a vast desire to be one of my 

 benefactors, and to appear in my Museum in print, a liberty I take of ex- 

 hibiting the names of my assistants) and such trumpery as he sent me you can 

 have no conception of. I have by letter told him my opinion, and that I 

 would not have given five shillings for the whole. Now this gentleman ex- 

 pected to have come and spent a fortnight with me, and brought his drawer 

 with him to have taken every subject he chose for the ornament of his pub- 

 lications. But I shall beg to be excused. Men of such narrow minds I like 

 not. * • Pray, are you married ? if not, I would recommend you to pre- 

 sent a case or two to any lady you may desire to win, as the ladies here are 

 quite captivated with your little case, and admire the taste of the disposer 

 of the articles contained in it. I have a little wife who is quite in love with 

 you, and insists on paying you a visit along with me. Let me know any 

 particular subject you may want that may fall in my way to supply you 

 with, as my inclination as well as my gratitude will always induce me to 

 shew you how much 



" I am, affectionatel}', yours, 



"ASHTON L.EVER.'* 



The following letter, from the same, is dated August, 1776 : — 



" Dear Latham, — Having plundered Amsterdam, Leyden, Harlem, the 

 Hague, Hotterdam, Delph, Massensluys, the Brill, and HelvoeJsluys, I am 

 now returned to England : and in consequence of the above voyage, shall 

 have more duplicates for you. You should see me as soon as you can, as 

 I have wonderful things to tell you. 



*' Yours, with compliments to Mrs. li., 



" AsHTOK Lever." 



Before this date Mr. Latham had formed acquaintance with most of the 

 leading naturalists and collectors of England. His acknowledgements to 

 these severally have been placed on record by himself. Sir Joseph Banks in 

 particular, when he found him disposed to arrange materials for a work on 

 Ornithology, handsomely gave up the whole of his splendid collection of 

 drawings and specimens for inspection and description. 



In 1781, the first volume of the General Synopsis appeared, and was fol- 

 lowed at irregular intervals by five others. A Supplement in two volumes 

 completed the work in 1787- By the preface to this latter work, we find 

 that he was then contemplating the Index Ornifhologicus, and he published 

 it in 1791. This last very useful work, written in what might, at that time 

 especially, be called a universal language, was received with great applause 



