Letters, Announcements, !i^c. 127 



an early age, and eclncated at King's College, London, of 

 which he was made an Honorary Fellow in 1863. On leaving 

 King's College he matriculated at the University of London 

 in 1853, and in the following year passed as a supernumerary 

 Interpreter for the ('onsular Service in China. During his 

 residence in China he acted as Vice-Consul and Consul at 

 Amoy, Shanghai, Ningpo, and Chefoo, as well as in Formosa. 

 His expeditions included : — a journey up the Yangtsze river as 

 far as the interior of Szechuen ; the circumnavigation of the 

 island of Formosa ; a visit to Hainan ; and a journey to Pekin, 

 whither he accompanied, as interpreter, the English forces 

 under General Napier and Sir Hope Grant. His last station 

 was Chefoo, whither he had gone, with the hope of regaining 

 health, in 1873. His malady, however, increasing, Swinhoe 

 quitted China in October 1873, and, retiring from the Consular 

 Service on a pension, lived in London till his death. 



During his stay in China, Swinhoe devoted the whole of 

 his spare time to working at the natural history of the diflPerent 

 places at which he resided, ornithology occupying a large 

 share of liis attention. On the eve of his first departure from 

 England he made the acquaintance of our Member, Mr. H. 

 Stevenson. It thus came to pass that some of Swinhoe's first 

 collections were consigned to Mr. Stevenson, and that a portion 

 of the birds passed into the Norwich Museum, where they 

 now are. But during his whole period of work Swinhoe 

 always reserved an extensive series of specimens for his private 

 collection, and used them for reference in compiling the nume- 

 rous papers that he was constantly writing on his favourite 

 subject. When Swinhoe first began his study of Chinese 

 ornithology our knowledge of the birds of that country may 

 be said to have been almost nothing. No general account of 

 the birds of China had ever been published ; and all that was 

 known of them was of the most fragmentary description. 

 The pages of the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society ' and 

 of this Journal testify to Swinhoe's unremitting energy at his 

 favourite subject. Of all the papers he wrote on it, the " Re- 

 vised List of Chinese Birds," published in the ' Proceedings ' 



