O.-i ORIGINAL MEMBERS. 



On the journey up tlie Dardauelles en route for Constan- 

 tinople the steamer stopped to Land some cargo at the ancient 

 SestoSj and, borrowing a boat and a couple of sailors from 

 the captain, Godman proceeded to bathe, when it suddenly 

 occurred to him that he Avas close to the spot where Leander 

 swam the Hellespont, so resolving to do the like, Godman 

 made the attempt, and successfully crossed to the Asiatic 

 side. 



Before leaving Constantinople he fell in with two soldier 

 friends, and subsequently rode through Greece with them ; 

 then, after returning to Athens, crossed the Isthmus of 

 Corinth, took the steamer to Trieste, and so came home by 

 Vienna and Dresden. 



In October 1853 Godman went to Cambridge, and, having 

 a great love for natural history, soon became acquainted wath 

 other kindred spirits, notably the two brothers Newton and 

 Osbert Salvin ; with the last then commenced that lifelong 

 and close friendship which culminated in the joint publi- 

 cation of the ' Biologia Centrali-Americana/ and terminated 

 only with Salvin's death in 1898. During the summer term 

 it had been the custom of the ornithological friends to meet 

 and talk over their recent captures of birds and eggs, and at 

 one of these meetings the suggestion was made that a 

 published record should be kept of their proceedings, but no 

 definite plan Avas then formulated, and it w^as not till the 

 celebrated gathering at Magdalene College in Alfred Newton's 

 rooms, in November 1857, that the British Ornithologists' 

 Union, consisting of 20 members, was founded, while the 

 first volume of ' The Ibis ' was issued in the ensuing year. 



While at Cambridge Godman took his first lessons in 

 bird-stuffing, and thenceforth Salvin and he spent much of 

 their spare time on wet days in the shop of Baker, the well- 

 known taxidermist in theTrumpington Eoad, thus acquiring 

 that practical knowledge of bird-skinning Avhich was destined 

 to be so useful in after life. It was, however, by no means 

 Ornithology alone that interested them, and together they 

 made frequent expeditions into the Fens in search of 

 Lepidoptcra, and a very fair collection of local insects was 



