ORIGINAL :me:\[bers. 161 



were commuincated to Mr. Howitson, in tlie last edition of 

 whose work Wolley^s observations were deservedly embodied, 

 with the prefatory remark, no less happy than trnc, that he 

 had " become as familiar with the King of birds as others are 

 with Crows and Magpies/^ Leaving the British Islands in the 

 month of Jnne, he visited the Faeroes, and passed several 

 weeks studying the ornithology of those islands, for whicli 

 his activity and fearlessness in rock-climbing afforded him 

 so great an advantage. An account of the birds of this 

 interesting group Avas read before the Natural History Section 

 of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 

 at their meeting in Edinburgh the following year, and the 

 ])aper will be found printed in full in Sir William Jardine^s 

 'Contributions to Ornithology' for 1850. At the next 

 Cambridge Commencement, July 1850, he proceeded to the 

 degree of M.A., and at the close of the winter session 1850-1 

 he quitted Edinburgh. 



After another expedition to the Highlands, in the course 

 of Avhich he became acquainted with some ]^]agle localities in 

 Argyllshire and Perthshire of remarkable interest, he again 

 took np his abode in London, and continued to reside 

 there until the spring of 1853. During all this time he was 

 thoroughly devoted to the object he had most at heart, and 

 while by no means unmindful of his former literary 

 researches, in Avhich he now comprised much investigation 

 relative to a species probably nearly extinct, the Great Auk, 

 he took especial care to extend his acquaintance among 

 other naturalists, with whom his pecnliarly quiet manner 

 and unassuming demeanour speedily rendered him deservedly 

 jiopnlar *. 



At length, in the spring of 1853, WoUey was enabled to 

 put in execution a plan the idea of which had for several 

 years haimted him, and to make an excursion of far greater 



* The writer may ])er]iaps be excused fur mentioning here tliat it 

 was in Octoher 1851 that he first became personally acquainted with 

 Mr. WoUey. For some years previously they had carried on a pretty 

 frequent correspondence on natural-history subjects, and this now led to 

 a closer intimacy, resulting in a friendship which continued to the last. 



