WHITJjJ—A Sketch of the Life of Samuel White. 81 



hut to allow them to rost siirroiindod by nature which he 

 lovoci so much. Apart from all this, this naturalist made 

 many friends, and 1 have known ship's officers, travelling 

 companions and others go to great trouble to find him year's 

 after they had met. He told a good after dinner story and 

 charmed his friends with his natural courteous manners and 

 the accounts of his many travels, and experiences, whenever 

 they could prevail upon him to speak of them. He was 

 naturally a fine horseman and there is no doubt he took 

 much interest in the raising of stock during his station days, 

 but ever uppermost in his mind were his beloved birds. It 

 was a byword in the family that "V\'hatever Samuel took in 

 hand he mastered", and this is well illustrated when I look 

 back uiton his proticiency in music, chemistry, photography, 

 and enromology as well as ornithology, he was a navigator 

 although he had not taken out a certificate; still his bringing 

 back his yacht upon his last vo3-age through uncharted seas 

 proved this. Samuel White was no mean artist and when, 

 quite a boy painted a number of the Native birds of his dis- 

 trict, which are far more life-like in colour and contour than 

 the illustrations in some ornithological works which have 

 appeared since that tim?. My father had a wonderful iuflu 

 ence over the aboriginies of both Australia and New Guinea. 

 He travelled and lived amongst the wild tribes of both count- 

 ries for years, but not once did he ever have trouble with 

 them. There was an old full blooded aboriginal who knew 

 my father as a boy, who travelled very many hundreds of 

 miles to find him, and when told that my father was dead he 

 wept and mourned his loss for days, this is but one of many 

 striking marks of affection borne by the natives towards my 

 father. I am afraid his good nature was often, very often 

 imposed upon, but it gave him the greatest pleasure to do 

 a good turn to another. During his sojourns in England (a 

 trip which was a great undertaking in those days) he loved 

 to meet his old army friends, and he spent many an evening 

 before the fire chatting over military matters, for he had the 

 true martial spirit of the Britisher. lie was proud to be a 

 Britisher, and proud of all that was British. Of course the 

 meetings with such men as John Gould, A. R. Wallace and 

 oiher Ornithologists were red letter days to my father, and 

 every conversation with them was burnt deeply into his me 

 moiv. Mii-.y a t'me have I heard him quote -John Gould and 

 (.iluMs in tiie old counay i^pon ornithological matters. I feel 

 sure John Gould the Author of ''The Birds of Australia" knew 



