Alfred Charlies Smith—In Memoriam. 201 
was known to the public at large. He was, indeed, an admirable 
example of a type of country clergyman which from one cause or 
another, was more frequent in the last generation than it is now, 
and bids fair to become rarer still as time goes on, to the very real 
“loss, it can hardly be doubted, both of the Church and the country 
at large. He was born a naturalist, and the circumstances of his 
life made him an archeologist too. You cannot read his books of 
travel without seeing that, whether on the banks of the Tagus or 
the Nile, his affections are really with the birds—and it was as an 
ornithologist, as the recognised authority, indeed, in the north of 
the county—for in the south Mr. Morres shared his office—on all 
matters connected with bird life, that he was most widely known. 
‘If a rare bird was seen—or shot—(the two things are unhappily 
generally synonymous)—the first thought of the person who saw 
it or killed it was to write to Mr. Smith, and the result of this 
large correspondence, and of the necessarily unique knowledge 
which it gave him, was embodied first of all in the papers on the 
“Ornithology of Wilts,” which he contributed to the first twelve 
volumes of the Magazine, and afterwards expanded and published 
separately in his “ Birds of Wiltshire,” in 1887. Himself a member 
of the “ British Ornithologists’ Union,” he was in constant corres- 
p ondence with many of the leading ornithologists of the day, among 
them, in earlier years, with Charles Waterton, of Walton Hall, 
Whose unique system of stuffing, or rather setting up, birds he 
gonfesses he tried in vain to practice—and to the end of his life 
vith his “old and valued friend,” Professor Alfred Newton, to 
vhom the “ Birds of Wiltshire ” is dedicated. At Yatesbury first, 
md afterwards at Old Park, the walls of the dining-room and the 
all were lined with a valuable collection of birds, the, greater 
number of which were the spoils of his own travels abroad, for in 
gypt and Syria, in Spain and Portugal and Norway, the gun and 
ae skinning-knife were his inseparable companions. But, keen 
ollector as he was, he always set his face against the extermination 
E rare species in England on the plea of enriching a collector’s 
asure. He was satisfied to have such species represented in his 
lection by specimens from countries where they are common— 
L. XXX.—NO. XCI, ° 
