Memoir of the late John Wolley. 175 



his main object — the desire of forming an oological collection all 

 the specimens of which should be thoroughly well authenticated, 

 and by consequence not only really serviceable to, but worthy 

 of, a study pertaining to the Exact Sciences. To gain this end, 

 no labom* was too severe — no personal hardship too great for 

 him to undergo. 



Accordingly, the summer of 1848 found him visiting the 

 northern extremity of our island, and he extended his excursion 

 to the Orkneys and Shetlands. This was probably more with 

 the intention of obtaining a personal knowledge of the localities, 

 to be made use of on a future occasion, than with much expecta- 

 tion of then adding to his collection, for the egging season was 

 already far advanced. The chief capture on this tour was that 

 of a pair of Sea Eagles, which were transmitted to the residence 

 of a relation at Matlock, where subsequently a mass of rocks, 

 perhaps in by-gone years tenanted by the other native species, 

 was wired over, and the plan of the cage thus formed, having 

 been brought to the knowledge of the late Secretary of the 

 Zoological Society, suggested the first idea of the fine Eagle 

 Aviary which now adorns the Gardens in the Regent's Park. 



Profiting by the knowledge he had gained the preceding 

 yeai', he started early in 1849 for the North, and during a 

 journey throughout Caithness and Sutherlandshire, most of 

 which was performed on foot, devoted himself to investigating 

 the habits of the larger birds of prey, which, as he perceived, 

 the combined efforts of sheep -farmers, game-preservers, and so- 

 called natural -history collectors were so soon to render nearly 

 extinct in that district. The principal results of his experience 

 on this and subsequent occasions were communicated to Mr. 

 HewitsoD, in the last edition of whose work Wolley's observa- 

 tions were deservedly embodied, with the prefatory remark, 

 no less happy than true, that he had " become as familiar with 

 the king of birds as others are with Crows and Magpies.''* 

 Leaving the British Islands in the month of June, he visited the 

 Faeroes, and passed several weeks studying the ornithology of 

 those islands, for which his activity and fearlessness in rock- 

 climbing afforded him so great an advantage. An account of 

 the birds of this interesting group was read before the Natural 



