1 74 Memoir of the late John Wolley. 



ordinary extinct bird, the Dodo, and in pursuing the search 

 for authorities he was led to make a minute study of the re- 

 cords of ancient voyages. This he did without any knowledge 

 of the labours towards the same end which were then being 

 prosecuted by the late Mr. H. E. Strickland, for it was not until 

 the close of the next year that he became acquainted with that 

 gentleman^s design of immediately bringing out a work on the 

 subject. Wolley had by that time collected a considerable mass 

 of materials ; but directly he saw an announcement of the con- 

 templated publication of ' The Dodo and its Kindred,^ he at 

 once communicated the principal results at which he had ar- 

 rived to Strickland, whose admirable monograph bears no un- 

 willing testimony to his appreciation of the assistance thus 

 generously proffered and to the value of the knowledge acquired*. 



In the summer of 1846, accompanied by one of his cousins, 

 he made a tour in Germany and Switzerland, throughout which 

 he neglected no opportunity of acquiring ornithological informa- 

 tion, while in the course of it he achieved a successful ascent of 

 Mont Blanc, — an exploit not then of the frequent occurrence that 

 it has since become. 



Towards the end of the next year (1847) he repaired to Edin- 

 burgh and joined the medical classes at that University, where 

 he diligently applied himself for the next three years to the 

 course of study necessary for attaining a physician's degree, and 

 with so much success that, during his last session (1850-1), he 

 was elected Senior President of the Hoyal Medical Society, — the 

 highest mark of respect his fellow-students could bestow on 

 himf- The vacations, however, he devoted to what now became 



* The writer begs leave to acknowledge here the kindness with which 

 Sir William Jardine has placed at his disposal copies of, and extracts from, 

 several of WoUey's letters to Strickland, written at this period. It may 

 be added, for the benefit of any naturalist who, at some time or other, may 

 tuni his attention to the matter, that Wolley was strongly of opinion that, 

 assiduously as Strickland had worked, the amount of information to be 

 yet derived from a more extended research, such as would be afforded by 

 several of our public and private libraries, was far from being exhausted, — 

 if indeed their dust did not still bury the knowledge of facts bearing on 

 this remarkable group of extinct organisms far more interesting than any 

 that had been resuscitated. 



t Kindly communicated to the writer by Professor Goodsir. 



