26 EARLY INTEREST IN NATURAL HISTORY 



must have been great opportunities, the only egg I 

 coveted a Hooded Merganser's, of which you have one. 



What is to be done about an Oological conference 

 this year ? You will be the great difficulty, or rather 

 I should say the time and place that will suit you. I 

 trust sincerely your health is better. 



Yours most truly, 



Alfred Newton. 



Another of Newton's early correspondents, and later 

 a life-long friend, was John Henry Gurney, of Norwich. 

 From 1844, when they became acquainted by means of 

 a Sea Eagle, until Gurney's death in 1890, they kept up 

 a frequent correspondence, mostly about birds of prey, 

 of which Mr. Gurney's famous collection is now in the 

 Norwich Museum. He was also a generous contributor 

 to the Museum at Cambridge. 



