xviii INTRODUCTION. 



coasts of Devon, must rank the Dolphin, Bottle-nosed Dolphin, 

 Rorqual, Eisso's Grampus and White Whale. In the department 

 of icthyology, he recorded local specimens of the Basking, 

 Thresher and Blue Sharks, Spinous Shark, Porbeagle, Pilotfish, 

 Pelamid, Blackfish, Boarlish, Swordfish, Sunfish, and Eagle Ray 

 with some others. He was also a competent botanist, but 

 ornithology was his grand passion and it is as an ornithologist 

 that he ranks among the most eminent of county faunists. It 

 was impossible for a man possessed of such wide knowledge and 

 generous instincts as Gatcombe, to keep his information to himself. 

 It is true that he seldom published notes as a young man, and 

 that nearly all his papers on Devonshire ornithology appeared 

 between the year 1872 and his death in 1887. Perhaps the 

 flight of Great Bustards which reached North Devon in 1871, 

 and which he duly chronicled had some influence in stirring him 

 to give to the world at large, those stores of information which 

 were always accumulating in his note-books. But he was at all 

 times ready to render aid to his fellow ornithc>logists. We have 

 seen that he assisted Mr. Brooking Rowe in compiling his 

 catalogue of Devonshire birds in 1863. He was no less ready to 

 assist Mr. H. E. Dresser and the late John Gould in their great 

 works. Mr. Dresser writes, " I am exceedingly glad to hear that 

 you purpose writing an obituary sketch of the late Mr. Gatcombe. 

 I first made his acquaintance many years ago, when he came with 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney to look over my collections, and since then I 

 have been in almost constant correspondence with him, and I 

 formed a very high opinion of him as an ornithologist, and 

 especially as a field natm-alist. He was a most accurate and 

 reliable observer and during the time I was engaged in writing 

 the Birds of Europe, he was indefatigable in procuring me any 

 information that I required respecting the ornithology of Devon 

 and Cornwall, and as you have doubtless seen, he sent me from 

 time to time some excellent field notes, and procured for me 

 many valuable specimens which are still in my collection. He 

 was also a very good draughtsman and often sent me paintings of 



