xvi INTRODUCTION. 



OBITUARY OF JOHN GATCOMBE. 



Of the numerous naturalists who have investigated the 

 Zoology of the West of England, no one ever deserved to be 

 more worthily remembered than the late John Gatcombe, whose 

 ornithological notes form so important a part of the present work. 

 He was born in 1818, at Knowle, in Somersetshire, the sou of 

 Richard and Eliza Gatcombe. When he wa? very young, the 

 family removed to Seatou in Devonshire, and when John was 

 about 10 years of age they removed to London. He was one of 

 twelve children, and the only member of the family who turned 

 his attention particularly to the study of Natural History. 

 He possessed great artistic talent, and as a boy always selected a 

 bird or animal as a subject for his pencil. He was always very 

 delicate, but eventually left London for Plymouth where the sea 

 air contributed greatly to the invigoration of his constitution. 

 A district so favourably adapted for ornithological observations 

 as Plymouth streugthened his natural bias for bird studies, and 

 his ample leisure permitted of his developing his tastes without 

 let or hindrance. He was only twenty-three when he discovered 

 some Richard's Pipits, attracted to them by the recognition of 

 their strange notes. He was already on friendly terms with the 

 Rev. W. S. Hore, an excellent ornithologist, bet\\een whom and 

 Gatcombe a life-long intimacy was subsequently maintained. 

 Much of his attention was given to wood carving and painting, 

 in both of which he manifested a remarkable degree of skill. 

 One of the most beautiful of his studies of birds is the figure of 

 an American Wigeon, given in Dr. Morris' work on British 

 Gamebirds and Wildfowl. He was equally generous in assisting 

 the Rev. F. Morris, who writes that Mr. Gatcombe " was so 

 obliging as to offer me, though an entire stranger, several designs 

 for some of the birds of my book, and I think I adopted every 

 one of them. Nearly all of them were extremely good, and I 

 added at the end of one of them, the Great Northern Diver, ' It 

 is one of the best figures of a bird I have ever seen ' " (in lit. 

 June 2. 181)0). His delicacy of touch and accuracy of detail 



