1919- Rev. Charles William Benson. 75 



naturalists of Ireland, were a further cause of quickening 

 to an activity little in need of a spur. 



Benson soon came to be much in request as a popular 

 lecturer on Irish birds, and in that capacity visited a good 

 many parts of the country. During the school holidays 

 he made a point of seizing opportunities for more distant 

 " bird-rambles," and generally visited either Switzerland 

 or German}^ (sometimes Italy too) in the company of his 

 much-loved son. The amount of information he accumu- 

 lated in these expeditions, especially about the birds of 

 Switzerland — always a favourite subject — must have been 

 very considerable ; and it will be of interest to many to 

 know that he had a book on Swiss Birds (such a book as he 

 had often himself felt to be a desideratum to tourists) 

 ready for publication at the time of his death. ^ 



The great sorrow that fell on Benson in 1884, in the 

 death of the son who had for years been his inseparable 

 companion, was a stroke from which, in the opinion of his 

 famity, he never fully recovered. Only those who knew 

 the man well can realise what he suffered. But it may 

 be said that those v/ho love the study of birds as Benson 

 himself loved it are gainers through the father's loss ; for 

 it v/as the inability that he now felt to go on delivering 

 lectures that led him to embody many of his notes in a 

 little volume, entitled " Our Irish Song-Birds." 



The rapidity with which the first edition of this little 

 book was bought up in 1886 is a tribute not often paid 

 to publications of similar aim. But the tribute was 

 thoroughly well deserved. " Our Irish Song-Birds " 

 makes no claim to be a work of original information, though 

 some of the passages detailing personal experiences are 

 among the most interesting it contains. For example, 

 the account of that remarkable scene on the banks of the 

 Dodder, when Benson and a friend saw a Missel-Thrush 

 rescue a Chaifinch from a hotly-pursuing Sparrow-Hawk, 



1 The Rev. W. F. Benson, rector of Templeshanbo, to whom I am in- 

 debted for many of the facts mentioned in this memoir, kindly informs 

 me that the present unsettled state of the world, combined with the 

 increased cost of paper, had determined his father to postpone publication 

 of this book — which it is much to be hoped may yet see the light. 



