2 INDEX-CATALOGUE OF THE BIRDS 



Though Mr. Hancock had previously done many Birds and 

 groups of Birds both for himself and for private friends in the 

 neighbourhood, it was not till 1851 that he ventured to send for 

 exhibition, to the building of the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, 

 London, his celebrated groups of Falcons and Heron, intended 

 to illustrate the sport of Falconry in ancient times — the Lam- 

 mergeyer of the Alps and a few other smaller groups of Gulls 

 and dead Game. It was not till this time that his artistic power 

 in preserving Birds became known generally to the public of his 

 native town and remoter parts of Great Britain. 



The Eagle and Swans originally intended for the Paris Exhi- 

 bition of 1861, but not sent there, and exhibited for some time 

 at the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, is the largest group that 

 Mr. Hancock attempted. In this group all the bones of the 

 head, wings, and feet of the two prominent Birds are entirely 

 removed and their places modelled in. Several other Birds in 

 the Collection are treated in the same manner. The groups of 

 Falcons and Gyrfalcons in the Wall-cases are, perhaps, some of 

 the finest examples of Mr. Hancock's artistic power, and study 

 of the habits of these noble Birds. The Falcon and Raven and 

 several groups of dead Game may also be classed with his master- 

 pieces, and the group of Peeve' s Pheasants, one of the last of 

 the large groups, was done in 1882. 



"With few exceptions the Collection is arranged according to 

 " Hancock's Catalogue of the Birds of Northumberland and 

 Durham."* Most of the local Birds mentioned in it form the 

 chief part of the Collection. The species not resident or not 

 found in the Northern Counties are represented as far as possible 

 by British killed specimens, but a few foreign Birds are intro- 

 duced occasionally to illustrate different states of plumage. Only 

 two species have been added since Mr. Hancock's death, namely, 

 the Ruffed-Bustard shot near Marske-by-the-Sea, and a specimen 

 of the Sooty-Shearwater shot near Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. 



Among the Palmipedes many additions have been made since 

 1892, as this was the part of the Collection left most incomplete 



* Natural History Transactions of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle-upon- 

 Tyne, vol. VI., 1874. 



