292 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vi. 



about the time the book began to go to press. In one 

 of the last letters he wrote before starting south he 

 expressed his keen desire to see the Report, and 

 regretted that it must be at least another year before 

 it could be in his hands. He never saw it. 



" Dr. Wilson was a particularly keen observer, espe- 

 cially in the open. Nothing escaped his notice. He 

 worked with untiring patience, was very modest, and 

 never thought of himself or his own reputation. He died 

 as he had hved — a very perfect Enghsh gentleman." 



Mention should also be made of the excellent illus- [ 

 trations, especially those in black-and-white, that he did ■] 

 for Major G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton's work on " British ^ 

 Mammals," pubUshed by Messrs. Ohver & Boyd. The i 

 recent expedition was the second one that Wilson had 

 accompanied to the Antarctic Regions, for in 1901 he ', 

 was selected as assistant surgeon and naturahst to the 

 " Discovery " Expedition, when he first revealed himself ; 

 in Polar circles as an artist of great merit. One may refer I 

 to several of the illustrations in the publications of that , 

 expedition, and to the many fascinating Avater-colour 

 paintings and exquisite black-and-Mhite sketches that - 

 were exhibited after his return from the Antarctic 

 Regions in 1904. By his good work the collections ; 

 of the " Discovery " were greatly enhanced, especially | 

 by his find of the Emperor Penguins' breeding-place, 

 and by securing possibly the first eggs and certainly the 

 first young of tliis bird. His observations regarding | 

 the time of laying and the development of the chick are , 

 especially noteworthy. For about three years he worked 

 in the British Museum at the " Discovery " vertebrate j 

 collections, and his work on the ornithology of the i 

 expedition marked him out as a fitting naturahst to , 

 another Antarctic expedition. No doubt these were the 

 quahfications which made Scott choose him as chief \ 

 of the scientific staff for his second expedition. But 

 there was something more : a friendship had sprung up , 

 between Wilson and his chief, which settled from the j 



