INTRODUCTION. xix 



some of the rarer birds, chiefly with a view to show the colour of 

 the soft parts. Quiet and unassuming in his habits, he was much 

 less known as an ornithologist than he deserved to be, and I shall 

 be very glad if your proposed sketch will throw some light upon 

 his career as an ornithologist, Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jun., was an 

 intimate friend of his and would I am sure, be able to give you 

 much interesting information concerning him " (in lit. August 

 14th, 1890). 



Mr. Gurney, with characteristic kindness, had already 

 communicated his reminiscences of Mr. Gatcombe, and forwarded 

 several letters addressed by that gentleman to the late 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney and himself. Two of these, selected for partial 

 reproduction here, may serve to show that Mr. Gatcombe was 

 much more than a local naturalist, and possessed considerable 

 acquaintance with continental species. 



" Antweep, Oct. 27th, 1868. 

 " My Dear Sir, 



"You will perceive from the above address that I am in 

 Belgium. We left London yesterday morning and arrived here 

 the same night. I did not get your letter until Thursday 

 evening last, when I got your letter at my lodgings in Buckingham 

 Street. I visited Leadenhall Friday and Saturday mornings 

 early, but did not see anything that would suit you. Gould has 

 made a drawing of your Fulmar and it looks well with an adult 

 bird in the same picture, but he is still at a loss how to colour the 

 bill of an old one. "What I meant by the bill of the Little Gull 

 being red was that the colour in summer is of a very deep blood 

 or what may be called black red. I believe it is described of that 

 colour by Yarrell and other authors. Gould showed me the 

 drawings of young and old, adult in summer with dark red bill, 

 in winter black with red at the base or corner of the mouth only. 

 An old one in the British Museum and another I saw at Cooke's 

 in Oxford Street, altho' stuffed for a long time evidently, 



