MEMOIR. XXX.ni 



those of 'The Ibis' for 1859_, in Avhich it originally appeared. 

 Disappointed in the ornithology of the district, Wolley was led to 

 pay attention to the barrows, stone-circles, and other ancient relics 

 w^ith which QCland * in particular abounds, and he was at much pains 

 to examine many of the numerous sacrificial and burial places in 

 that island and to collect organic remains from them, as it should 

 be mentioned he had already done to some extent from similar 

 places in Lapland. While thus employed he received a pressing 

 invitation from Professor Retzius (with whom he had kept up the 

 acquaintance formed on first visiting Stockholm in 1853) to 

 accompany him to the meeting of Scandinavian Naturalists then 

 about to be held at Christiania, and accordingly repaired thither, 

 where he read three papers: — 1st, "On the Recrystallization of 

 Fallen Snow"; 2nd, "On the Swarm of Lemmings in Lapland in 

 1853, the Birds that accompanied it and their Mode of Breeding " ; 

 and 3rd, "On the Improvement of the Breed of the Reindeer." 

 The meeting over, he went to Copenhagen, and thence to Stockholm, 

 on his way back to Lapland. 



On his arrival at the Swedish capital he received the agreeable 

 news of the almost unhoped-for discovery, through Ludwig's efforts, 

 of the first nest and eggs of the Waxwing (§ 808) f* The particulars 

 are so fully recounted in the following pages that nothing more need 

 be said here, except that at ^Volley's especial request the intelligence, 

 which he lost no time in imparting to me, was communicated to but 

 a few of his most intimate friends at home, and that he wished 

 Mr. Yarrell to make public the news. However, before the letters 

 announcing the great event reached England that good man had been 

 laid in his grave, and the discovery was accordingly first made known 

 in a short paper communicated by Wolley himself to the Zoological 



* A curious iucideut occurred here whicli gave Wolley much amusement, though 

 attended by some inconveuieuce. An old -woniau claimed him as her long-lost son, 

 supposed to have gone oft' to Australia. In spite of all he could say or do she clung 

 to this belief, aud several relations, including some would-be brothers, were ready 

 to accept him on her testimony. There was no attempt to get money from him ; 

 on the contrary, the family had lately come into some property (to them not incon- 

 siderable), and were content that he should have his share of it if he would but 

 acknowledge his true parentage ! 



t In his 'Egg-book' he wrote that he received Ludwig's letter "at Stockholm 

 (or at Calmar) " ; but I think there is no doubt that he got it at the former place. 



