MEMOIR. XVU 



had arrived to Strickland. A brisk correspondence between them 

 ensued^ and the volume when it appeared bore testimony (p. 26) to 

 the author's appreciation of the information thus generously imparted, 

 and the value of the knowledge acquired. 



The close of 1846 was also marked by the beginning of Wolley's 

 connexion with what has since proved to be another extinct bird, and 

 one to elucidate the history of whose extirpation his latest inves- 

 tigations were directed. On the 12tli of December in that year he 

 received through Mr. Gould, for the sum of eight-and-twenty shillings, 

 the egg of an AIca impenyiis, which the latter had sold for the same 

 price some four years before to Mr. D. Barclay Bevan, of Burton 

 Latimer, near Higham Ferrers. Hitherto that species had only been 

 considered very rare, specimens of its skin or e^^, the origin of which 

 few if any ornithologists troubled themselves to trace, occasionally 

 coming into the market ; and even Mr. Henry Milner, an old school- 

 fellow of Wolley's, who had been in Iceland during the preceding 

 summer, and had there enquired for the bird, returned without 

 suspecting that the species had come to an end, for in truth examples 

 (the last as we now know) had been taken there only two years 

 before. Yet it was Mr. Mihier's failure to obtain any specimens 

 that led to suspicion as to the bird's fate. 



For the first half of the year 184.7 he remained in London, 

 ostensibly "reading for the bar;^' but it became clear to him that 

 the law would be an unsuitable profession, and, after a few months' 

 sojourn at home, he in November repaired to Edinburgh, where 

 (lodging at 3 Roxburgh Place) he joined the medical classes at that 

 University, diligently applying himself for the next three years to 

 the course of study necessary for attaining a physician's degree;, and 

 with such success that (as the late Professor Goodsir informed me) 

 during his last session (1850-51) he was elected Senior President of 

 the Royal Medical Society — the highest mark of respect that his 

 fellow-students could bestow ou him. In his vacations, however he 

 devoted himself to Avhat henceforth became his main desire — that of 

 forming a collection of birds' eggs, all the specimens of which should 

 be thoroughly trustworthy, and by consequence not only serviceable 

 to, but worthy of a scientific study. In those days he was by no 

 means alone in believing that Oology would prove an important help 



