158 ORIGINAL MEMliERS. 



Ill October 1842 lie went to Cambridge,, aud entered upon 

 his residence at Trinity College. For one who had just 

 quitted the sixth form at Eton and did not intend to take a 

 degree in honours, not much reading was necessary, and with 

 Wolley's tastes it is not surprising to find that most of his 

 time while at the University Avas passed in the Cambridge- 

 shire and Huntingdonshire fens and woods, which then 

 afforded a rich tield for the researches of a naturalist. In 

 the long vacation of 1845 he started on a trip to the south 

 of Spain, and after visiting Cadiz, Seville, and Gibraltar, 

 crossed the Straits to Tangier. Here he unexpectedly found 

 a keen egg-collector domiciled, at that time known to but 

 few naturalists in Europe, and perhaps to none in England. 

 Though at first only the cabinets of AYolley himself and his 

 immediate friends were benefited by the discovery, the 

 knowledge of Mons. Favier's readiness to oblige other 

 oologists soon spread, and to their general advantage. It is 

 true that the eggs thus rendered attainable to British 

 collectors were such as at present are no longer accounted 

 scarce; but the pi'ogress of the study is marked by the fact 

 that at that time an experienced ornithologist like the late 

 Mr. Yarrell considered such eggs as the Pratincole^s and 

 S tilths, brought home by Wolley, as the " rarest he had ever 

 had.^^ JNlr. Hewitson, too, Avas thereby shortly afterwards 

 enabled to give, for the first time, a correct figure of the egg 

 of the Egyptian Vulture in the edition of his well-known 

 work then approaching completion. 



In January 1846, Wolley graduated as a B.A. and left 

 the University. He then went to live in Loudon, and entered 

 at the Middle Temple with the intention of studying law. 

 But more congenial pursuits chiefly occupied his attention, 

 and though he kept the terms necessary for a call to the 

 Bar, the reading-room of the British Museum was more 

 frequently his haunt than the chambers of the special 

 pleader, and the design of following a barrister's profession 

 was subsequently abandoned. Profiting by the opportunities 

 he enjoyed, he at this time mostly busied himself Avith 

 studying the works of the older naturalists. The writer lias 



