268 BRITISH BIRDS. 



thence with a large collection of seeds and plants, 

 and published the Catalogue of the Museum. As he 

 informs us in an address " To the Ingenious Reader " : — 



" About three yeares agoe (by the perswasion of some 

 friends) I was resolved to take a Catalogue of those Rarities 

 and Curiosities which my Father has scedulously collected, 

 and my-self with continued diligence have augmented, and 

 hitherto preserved together : they then pressed me with that 

 Argument, that the enumeration of these Rarities, (being 

 more for variety than any one place known in Europe could 

 afford) would be an honour to our Nation, and a benefit 

 to such ingenious persons as would become further enquirers 

 into the various modes of Natures admirable \\orkes, and the 

 curious Imitators thereof : I readily yielded to the thing so 

 urged and with the assistance of two worthy friends (well 

 acquainted with my design) we then began it, and many 

 examinations of the materialls themselves, & their agreements 

 with several Authors. . . ." 



The book itself is a source of never-ending interest 

 and amusement to the curious reader. As the late 

 Professor Newton said in his address to the Museums 

 Association in 1891, " Did time permit, I would gladly 

 go over this little book page by page, for I believe there 

 is hardly a leaf but would furnish the text for a sermon." 



We must here content ourselves with some account of 

 Tradescant's list of })irds with which he occupies the 

 first four pages of the book, and which he heads, " Some 

 kindes of Birds, their Egges, Beaks, Feathers, Clawes, 

 and Spurres." 



Amongst the " Egges " in the museum he enumerates 

 " Crocodiles, Estridges, Soland goose or Squeedes from 

 iScotland. Divers sorts of Egges from Turkic : one 

 given for a Dragons egge," and " Easter Egges of the 

 Patriarchs of Jerusalem," while the " beaks or heads " 

 include those of the " Griffin, Pellican, Shoveller, and 

 thirty other severall forrain sorts, not found in any 

 Author, and sixteen several strange beaks of Birds from 

 the East India's," but it was amongst the "Feathers and 

 Clawes " that the chief treasures of the collection reposed 

 — here were " Two feathers of the Phoenix tayle " and 



