XXXVlll MEMOIR. 



before Wolley had another violent attack^ from which he only once, 

 and that for a short time, rallied. He then seemed quite aware of 

 his approaching end, and expressed his wishes respecting the place 

 of his burial and the disposal of his oological collection. On the 

 20th of November, 1859, after having for some hours lapsed into a 

 state of complete unconsciousness, he expired without suifering. 



His last wishes were faithfully carried out. In accordance with 

 them his remains were interred in the churchyard of Matlock — his 

 birth-place — and, dying intestate, his collection of eggs was handed 

 over to me by his father, who most liberally accompanied the gift 

 with all the books and papers thereto pertaining, as well as those 

 relating to the investigations Wolley had carried on into the history 

 of the Dodo and the Garefowl. He had been for some time in the 

 habit of sending yearly to the Museum at Norwich most of the skins 

 of the birds obtained by himself or his agents in Lapland, and at his 

 desire his father generously presented to the same institution the 

 remaining portion of the collection, and the late Mr. John Henry 

 Gurney, who was so great a benefactor to that Museum, provided 

 chests of camphorwood for the safer preservation of the specimens. 

 The Norfolk and Norwich Museum of those days has since been 

 taken over by the authorities of that city ; but the " Wolley Dona- 

 tion ^' may now be equally well examined and consulted in the existing 

 Castle Museum at Norwich. There it must always form an object 

 of interest to ornithologists, and especially to those who through 

 Wolley's generosity, or his annual sales, are possessed of duplicates 

 of his eggs, many of which are thereby thoroughly identified ; but 

 in view of the recent growth of ideas as to the extent and purposes 

 of Museums, it cannot be pretended that this collection maintains 

 the relative importance it once had. The matter of greatest regret 

 is, and always will be, that his active mode of life and premature 

 death prevented his giving to the world the connected account of his 

 discoveries and experience which he had meditated. Copious as his 

 notes in many cases were, those which are printed in the following 

 pages remedy that deficiency but poorly, even though they generally 

 include all that he had published on the respective subjects, whether 

 in journals or the last edition of his friend Hewitson^s admirable 

 work on Oology. 



