Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 303 



and was a great lover of art, Edward Hargitt had ample 

 inducement to become a painter, and accordingly we find 

 him a student in the schools of the Royal Scottish Academy 

 under Robert Scott Lauder, having for companions Mr. W. 

 Orchardson, R A., Mr. J, MacWhirter, R.A., the late John 

 Pettie, and other well-known artists. Up to 1880 his works 

 were frequently to be seen at Burlington House, but his forte 

 lay in water-colours rather than in oils, and to the former 

 he devoted the greater part of his attention, especially after 

 his election to the Institute in 1887. Addicted to Scottish 

 scenery, his work led him into many of the wildest and most 

 picturesque districts of the Highlands, where, during many 

 years, he devoted much of his time to ornithology. At that 

 time few men of kindred tastes knew the remoter districts so 

 well, and even now it may be said that few know them better 

 than our deceased friend did. In company with Auguste, 

 the younger brother of Rosa Bonheur, he visited some of the 

 least fi-equented districts of the French and Spanish Py- 

 renees ; he explored portions of Normandy with the veteran 

 Nourry, of Elboeuf ; and everywhere he acquired infor- 

 mation, which was always freely placed at the disposal of 

 his ornithological acquaintances. One strong feature was 

 the interest he showed in the study of birds in down and 

 fledgling plumage, a subject which had then received scant 

 attention in England; and it was owing to his relation- 

 ship with Sysselmand Miiller, of the Fseroes, that the early 

 stage of the Fulmar Petrel was first made known in the 

 4th edition of YarrelL's 'British Birds,' in 1881. His 

 studies and collections embraced all the birds — with their 

 eggs — of the Western Palsearctic region; and when these 

 collections swelled to a size incompatible with the accommo- 

 dation he could afford, the bulk of the birds passed into the 

 British Museum, while the eggs were acquired by Mr. See- 

 bohm, to form part of the entire collection subsequently 

 presented by the latter to the nation. The immediate cause 

 of want of space for these was Mr. Hargitt's selection of the 

 Woodpeckers for special study, and in 1890 he produced 

 vol. xviii. (Picidae) of the 'Catalogue of the Birds in the British 



