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By Mr. Cunnington. 89 
“Tt was at this early period” says Mrs. Crawford, “that my 
father first began to turn his attention, whenever opportunity 
offered, to those pursuits of natural science for which he had so 
strong a predilection, and for which he was afterwards so much 
distinguished. He first commenced by shooting any of the more 
curious American birds, a few of which he preserved with his own 
hands, though with no further intention at the time than that of 
presenting them to my mother, should he live to return to her, as 
proofs of his regard, and memorials of his past adventures. 
“The interest which my father had felt from his boyhood in the 
works of nature, animate and inanimate, was much increased by 
the wild grandeur of the scenes which he traversed, and by the 
novelty of many of the feathered and four-footed tribes that 
inhabit them. He ultimately determined however, to limit his 
researches and his specimens to British Birds and British Zoology 
generally, thinking that every collection ought to be as complete 
as possible of its kind, and being desirous that his own should be 
the result of his practical studies in the wide field of nature. It 
was thus that he formed that very extensive and beautiful collection 
of birds for which he was celebrated, and which after his death 
was disposed of to the Trustees of the British Museum for I believe 
£3,000.” 
At the same time he was gradually collecting materials for two 
most valuable works, the ‘‘ Ornithological Dictionary,” 2 vols., 8vo., 
published in 1802, and the “Testacea Britannica,” 4to., in 1803. 
These are still quoted as standard authorities in the departments 
of natural science to which they relate. 
Lieutenant Montagu was early promoted to a Captaincy, but he 
did not long remain in America, and in a few years quitted the 
army altogether. He shortly afterwards received a commission in 
the Militia of his native county, in which he subsequently rose to 
the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He now had full leisure to devote 
himself to his favourite pursuits. His occasional removals with his 
regiment from one place to another, neither separated him from his 
wife and children, nor obstructed his researches in Ornithology 
and Conchology, which, with the collecting of notes and materials 
N 
