266 CINCLUS AQUATICUS. 



Avhicb had belonged the nest from wliich I had taken the tliree eggs." Four 

 years hiter he recorded in ' The Zoologist ' (p. 52G0) the fact that, out of nearly 

 forty examples of this bird which he had dissected, he bad " never as yet found 

 anything at all pertaining to fish " in their stomach, " water-insects and larvfe 

 being what I have most frequently observed." But, he adds, " only convince 

 our salmon-fishers of this, and I will say you are a very clever fellow indeed." 

 It is to be hoped that those interested in salmon-fisheries are now wiser than 

 they were in 1S56.] 



[§ 1130. i^o?^r.— Rackmill, Banffshire, 1853. Trom Mr. T. 

 Edward. 



Writing on the 20rd of April in that year Mr. Edward said that this was a 

 complete nestful.] 



[^ 1131. i^o«r.— Scotland, 1853. From Mr. T. Edward. 



In a way that deservedly excited general interest and was happily successful 

 in its effect, a popular writer has told the painful story ^ of the struggles bravely 

 endured, until past middle life, by the enthusiastic and somewhat imaginative 

 lover of Nature to whom I owe the eggs above entered and some others to be 

 subsequently mentioned. I must confess myself to be one of those who, in his 

 biographer's language, ''assailed" him; yet his letters to me prove that he 

 received the assault graciously, and I may add that, though not unfrei|ueutly 

 referring in them to his poverty and bad health, he never complained of his 

 misfortunes, while he was effusive in expressing his gratitude for some small 

 services that it was in my power to render him. I did not know until long 

 after the depth of misery to which he was at this very time reduced. I regret 

 that I never met him and tliat after he became comparatively prosperous our 

 correspondence dropped — the branches of zoology in which be so justly attained 

 celebrity not being those that especially concerned me. Thomas Edward died, 

 aged seventy -one, iu April 1886, and a brief obituary notice of him will be 

 found in the report of the Anniversary Meeting of the Linnean Society on the 

 3rd of June in that year.] 



[§ 1132. Two. — Dryfesdale, Dumfries-sliire, May, 1854. From 

 Mr. W. G. Johnstone.] 



[§ 1133. Jzy^.— Carrygawley, Leek, Donegal. 18 April, 1863. 

 " R. H." From Mr. Robert Harvey, 1864.] 



^ Mr. Harvey wrote that he took these himself, " from a hole in the underside 



of the arch of an old bridge. ... I have known this nest occupied by these 

 Dippei's for the last seven years."] 



' 'Life of a Scotch Naturalist: Thomas Edward, Associate of the Linnean 



Society.' By Samuel Smiles. (London : 1876.) 



