BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF PHILIP LUTLEY SCLATER. XI 



lionie and always visiting the Continent in vacation time, and tluis 

 soon made hims<»lf familiar with French, German and Italian. 



At tills peiiod of Ills life lie was often in Paris, where he made the 

 acqnaintance of the great ornithologist, Prince Charles Bonaparte, at 

 whose house, until his death in 1858, he was a fre(iuent visitor. 



In 1851 he entered himself for the bar, becoming a student at 

 Lincoln's Inn, occasionally visiting Oxford, and passing his leisure 

 time at Iloddington, but alwaj's enthusiastically engaged in natural 

 history pursuits. The winter of 1852-53 was given to travel in Italy 

 and Sicily. 



In I)eceml)er, 1S55, he was admitted fellow of Corpus Christi Col- 

 lege, and having in the previous June completed his legal education 

 and been called to the l>ar by the Honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn, 

 he went the Western Circuit for several years. 



In 1850 he made his first journey across the Atlantic, in company 

 with the Rev. George Ilext, a fellow collegian. Leaving England in 

 July, they went by New York up the Hudson to Saratoga, and there 

 attended the meeting of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science. After that they went to Niagara, and thence 

 through the Great Lakes to Superior City, at the extreme end of 

 Lake Superior. Here they engaged two Canadian "voj^ageurs" and 

 traveled on foot through the backwoods to the upper waters of the 

 St. Ci'oix River. This they descended in a birch-bark canoe to the 

 Mississippi. ^Ir. Sclater subsequently published an account of this 

 journey in the third volume of "Illustrated Travels." (See paper 

 No. 57G.) 



Rctuiiiing b.y steamboat and railway to Philadelphia, he spent a 

 month in that city studying the splendid collection of birds l)elong- 

 ing to llic Academy of Natural Sciences, where he formed the 

 ac(|uaintance of John Cassin, Joseph Leidy, John Le Conte, and other 

 then well-known members of that society. He returned to England 

 shortly before Christmas, 185G. 



For some years after this he lived in London, practicing occasion- 

 ally at the bar, but always at work on natural histor3^ He was a 

 constant attendant at the meetings of the Zoological Society, of which 

 he was elected, in 1850, a life member and in 1857 a member of the 

 council. 



In January, 1850, lie made a short excursion to Tunis and eastern 

 Algeria, in company with Mr. E. C. Taylor and two other friends. 

 They visited the breeding places of the vultures and kites in the in- 

 teiior and gathered many bird skins, i-et ui-ning to London at the end of 

 March. 



At this time Mr. I). AV. ^lilchell, secretary of the Zoological Society, 

 was about to vacate his post in oi-der to take charge of the newly 

 instituted Jardin <rAcclimatation in l*aris. For this position Mr. 

 Sclater was selected by Owen and ^ arrcll, then influential members 



