PREFACE. 



\ 



Maemaduke Tunstall, of Wycliffe, in the North Eiding of the 

 county of York, is said to have been born in 1748, and to have 

 died October llth, 1790. As a memoir of him was given by Fox in 

 that mine of curious information on Natural History, the ' Synopsis of 

 the Newcastle Museum', pu.blished in 1827, it is only needful here to 

 mention a few facts referring to this work, which seem to have been 

 unknown to that writer. 



In the ' Gentleman's Magazine ' for January, 1824: (vol. xoiv. 

 pt. i. pp. 14, 15) are printed three letters from Linn^us to Tunstall.* 

 The first of them, dated (as is stated) " Upsaliae, 1772, Aug. 13", 

 contains this passage : — 



" Dum in eo sum, ut adornem novam editionem tomi 1™* Systematis, 

 quem typographus efflagitat a me, magnopere exoptarem allegare 

 Ornithologiam tuam, quam dicis te liberali manu ad me misisse ; sed 

 meo magno cum dolore nondum excepi : quaeso, dicas mihi per quem 

 exoptatissimum opus misisti." 



In the second, written on October 13th, 1773, he acknowledges the 

 arrival that day of the book — '' Ornithologiam tuam Britannicam " — 

 with certain specimens sent him by Tunstall. 



In the third letter, bearing date " Upsaliae, 1773, 21 Nov.", 

 LiNN.a;us writes : — "Catalogus tuus de Avibus Britannicis certe 

 perplacuit." 



Tunstall was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society on the llth of 

 April of the year in which he brought out his work.f His certificate, 

 in the handwriting of his proposer, Daines Baeeington, describes 

 him " of Welbeck Street in the parish of Marybone," and sets forth 



* These letters have been reprinted in tho ' Memoirea de la Societo 

 Linneenne de Calvados ' (1824, pp. 296-300). 



t Not in 1777, aa slated by Fox {op. cit. p. 14). 



