122 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



British birds. Besides thoroughly exploring the neighbour- 

 hood of Liverpool in company with a younger brother whose 

 tastes were exactly similar to his own^ he at various times 

 made expeditions to all parts of the coast. North Wales, 

 Anglesea, Walncy Island, Suffolk, Hampshire, and Hayling 

 Island were all, at one time or another, the scene of an 

 excursion; and on one occasion (the spring of 1874) he ex- 

 tended his travels as far as the North Frisian Islands and the 

 coast of Schleswig (' Ibis,' October 1874, and ' Field,' March 

 1878). 



In 1875, being then 22, he succeeded in obtaining an ap- 

 pointment in a house of business at Buenos Ay res, for which 

 place he set out on February 23rd. Though compelled by 

 force of circumstances to labour at what was, to him, an un- 

 congenial occupation, he did not by any means lose his love 

 of birds ; and the numerous letters received at this period 

 point to the vigour with which he pursued his scientific studies 

 in his adopted country. After remaining two and a half 

 years Avith the same firm, the closing of their Buenos- Ayres 

 branch afforded him an opportunity, of which he gladly availed 

 himself, for severing for ever his connexion with the desk. 

 He boldly determined to devote himself henceforth to natural 

 history, not merely as a pleasant way of occupying his spare 

 time, but as his sole occupation, by which he was determined 

 to gain his livelihood. With the example before him of many 

 who have succeeded in the same line, and undeterred by the 

 still greater number of those who have failed, he set earnestly 

 to work, and in such a way that, had his life been spared, 

 there can be little doubt that he Avould ultimately have ranked 

 high in the list of naturalists and explorers. 



After an expedition, occupying nearly eight months, to the 

 Welsh colony of Chupat, during Avhich he explored a portion 

 of Patagonia hitherto unknown to European travellers (Ibis, 

 October 1878), he set off, accompanied by a muleteer and 

 four mules, on a more extensive expedition to Tucuman, Bo- 

 livia, and the Upper Paraguay. The first portion of his 

 journey was most successfully accomplished; and in a letter 

 dated '' Rio Pasage, 16th June, 1878," he speaks with the 



