BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF PHILIP LUTLEY SCLATER. XI 



home and always visiting the Continent in vacation time, and thus 

 soon made himself familiar with French, German and Italian. 



At this period of his life he was often in Paris, where he made the 

 acquaintance of the great ornithologist, Prince Charles Bonaparte, at 

 whose house, until his death in 1858, he was a frequent visitor. 



In 1851 he entered himself for the bar, becoming a student at 

 Lincoln's Inn, occasionally visiting Oxford, and passing his leisure 

 time at Iloddington, but always enthusiastically engaged in natural 

 history pursuits. The winter of 1852-53 was given to travel in Italy 

 and Sicily. 



In December, 1855, he was admitted fellow of Corpus C'hristi Col- 

 lege, and having in the previous June completed his legal education 

 and been called to the bar by the Honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn, 

 he went the Western Circuit for several years. 



In 185(3 he made his first journey across the Atlantic, in company 

 with the Rev. George Ilext, a fellow collegian. Leaving England in 

 July, they went by New York up the Hudson to Saratoga, and there 

 attended the meeting of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science. After that they went to Niagara, and thence 

 through the Great Lakes to Superior City, at the extreme end of 

 Lake Superior. Here they engaged two Canadian "voyageurs" and 

 traveled on foot through the backwoods to the upper waters of the 

 St. Croix River. This they descended in a birch-bark canoe to the 

 Mississippi. Mr. Sclater subsequently published an account of this 

 journey in the third volume of "Illustrated Travels." (See paper 

 No. 576.) 



Returning by steamboat and railway to Philadelphia, he spent a 

 month in that city studying the splendid collection of birds belong- 

 ing to the Academy of Natural Sciences, where he formed the 

 acquaintance of John Cassin, Joseph Leidy, John Le Conte, and other 

 then well-known members of that society. He returned to England 

 shortly before Christmas, 1856. 



For some years after this he lived in London, practicing occasion- 

 ally at the bar, but alwaj's at work on natural history. He was a 

 constant attendant at the meetings of the Zoological Society, of which 

 he was elected, in 1850, a life member and in 1857 a member of the 

 council. 



In January, 1850, he made a short excursion to Tunis and eastern 

 Algeria, in company with Mr. E. C. Taylor and two other friends. 

 They visited the breeding places of the vultures and kites in the in- 

 terior and gathered many bird skins, returning to London at the end of 

 March. 



At this time Mr. D. W. Mitcliell, secretary of the Zoological Society, 

 was about to vacate his post in order to take charge of the newly 

 instituted Jardin d'Acclimatation in Paris. For this position Mr. 

 Sclater was selected by Owen and Yarrell, then influential members 



