INTRODUCTION. 



Having been requested by some members of the 

 Urban District Council of Waterloo to give a sketch 

 of my career by way of preface to this little Hand- 

 book to the Collection of Birds, I will endeavour to 

 be as brief as possible. 



My father, the Rev. Theodore Augustus Echalaz, 

 was Vicar of Lullington, in the County of Derby- 

 shire, and a Rural Dean. 



I was born at the Vicarage on the 9th of July, 

 1844. In my childhood days I evinced a strong 

 predilection for an outdoor, rather than a sedentary 

 life, or the study of books ; and, at about the age of 

 ten, my parents decided that a soldier's life was the one 

 for me; I remember when the subject was broached, 

 and I was assured that it didn't necessarily follow 

 that I should be shot, I was quite satisfied to be a 

 soldier. My parents not being particularly well off, 

 and therefore not in a position to make me an 

 allowance, it was thought advisable, if possible, to 

 obtain a nomination for me in the Indian Army. 

 These nominations were no easy matter in those 

 days, and required a good deal of influence ; luckily, 

 my father possessed a good friend in the person 

 of Squire Bracebridge of Atherstone Hall who 

 happened to know Sir John Stuart Mills, at the 

 India Office, intimately, so the matter was arranged. 



