ORIGINAL MEMBERS. l43 



few Roseate Terns visible were only doubtfully identified. 

 The same party had a delightful day on Cheviot a little 

 later, when they found that the Merlin and Dunlin had 

 already hatched oflF; but a complete clutch of the Golden 

 Plover was secured from the flat and hassocky summit of 

 the mountain. On the 7th July following, Simpson, who 

 was then visiting his relations in Cumberland, secured a 

 nest of the Dotterel, with its complement of three eggs, 

 on the summit of Robinson Fell near Buttermere. 



Simpson took his B.A. degree in January 1850, and 

 forthwith went to reside in London, where he was called to 

 the Bar in 1853. Those years were not prolific in ornitho- 

 logical pursuits, although during a short fishing-trip to the 

 north-west of Ireland, in May 1853, he and his old College 

 chum James Law had the good fortune to secure nests of 

 the Sea-Eagle and Peregrine Falcon from the 0110*8 of Horn 

 Head in Donegal. The Sea-Eagle was fairly numerous in 

 those days, and anyone specially bent on nesting might 

 possiblyhave secured several eggs. There was one remark- 

 able nest on a high pinnacle, or stack, detached from the 

 cliffs of Arran More Islands, Avhere the bird could be seen 

 sitting on eggs which must have been laid on the very point 

 of the stack. Under the old conditions this might be 

 regarded as an inaccessible spot, but nothing would be easier 

 than firing at such a tempting object with a long-range ride, 

 and many is the bird within the last fifty years that has 

 fallen a victim to this detestable practice. The Sea-Eagle is 

 probably now extinct on the coasts of Ireland. 



After a lull of something like five years, part of which 

 had been occupied in foreign travel, Simpson again took 

 up ornithology seriously in the spring of 1855, and this time 

 at the instance of Alfred Newton, with whom he had remained 

 in constant touch ever since their first meeting at Cambridge 

 in 1848. The exploits of John Wolley in Lapland were then 

 fresh in the minds of the ornithological world, and the pros- 

 pect of sharing in such adventures was too tempting to be 

 neglected. Newton, from his energy and devotion to orni- 

 thology, was already establishing a position of influence 



