XXIV MEMOIR. 



end of this year the arrival in the Zoological Gardens of the first 

 living Apteryx seen in Europe greatly interested him, and early in 

 1852 he paid it several noeturnal visits to watch its behaviour, the 

 results of his careful observations being minutely described in 

 'The Zoologist' for that year (pp. 3409-342i), while in the July 

 following he accompanied my brother Edward and myself in another 

 visit for the like purpose {torn. cit. pp. 3605-3610). 



At length, in the spring of 1853, Wolley was enabled to put in 

 execution a plan, the idea of which had for several years haunted 

 him, and to make an excursion of far greater extent than any he had 

 hitherto accomplished. Not only had he from his boyhood rejoiced 

 in the thought of one day visiting the land of Gyrfalcons and Caper- 

 callies, of Bears and Wolves, but of late the very unsatisfactory 

 nature of our knowledge respecting the nidification of various birds, 

 among which were some of our best known visitants, had been 

 constantly present to his mind. English oologists had more than 

 twenty years before visited Iceland and the coast-region of Norway, 

 making discoveries of remarkable interest. It was therefore but 

 reasonable to suppose that some sort of similar success would attend 

 investigations carried on in still more northern latitudes. The pages 

 of Mr. Yarrell's ' British Birds ' recorded the results of Mr. Dann's 

 visit to Lapland, and moreover Mr. Lawrence Hey worth, an acquaint- 

 ance of Wolley's, had only three years before travelled through that 

 country, and brought back spoils and intelligence sufficient to excite 

 the ardour of a much less keen naturalist. Then, again, there was 

 the geographical consideration that, from the very configuration of 

 the land, the country lying between the Arctic Ocean and a large 

 inland sea like the Baltic would probably be found to offer to many 

 species of birds peculiar advantages as a breeding-station *. AH this 



* At this time I suppose no British naturalist was aware (certainly Wolley was 

 not) of the attempts in this direction made by our Scandinavian bretliren since 

 the days of Linnseus. The attempts, it is true, were not, ornichologicall}' speaking-, 

 very successful, but Prof. Zetterstedt's rather important discovery will be found 

 mentioned in the following- pages (pp. 418, 419). Mr. Dann unfortunately never 

 published any account of his journeys, and it was not till ISol that Mr. Lloyd 

 brought out his ' Scandinavian Adventures,' in which some of tie achievements 

 of Swedish naturalists -u'ere made known to Englishmen for the first time, but 

 they were not always judiciously chosen. 



