SHROPSHIRE NATURALISTS. ^^ 



and passed into the possession of Sir William Milner. 

 It is remarkable that although Mr. Pinches' collection 

 must have been in existence and contained many Birds 

 of great local interest no allusion to it appears in the 

 lists of either Mr. Eyton or Mr. Rocke. Several of these 

 specimens are mentioned in the present volume. Most 

 of the collection was made between 1830 and 1840, and 

 to render the series more complete Mr. Pinches pro- 

 cured, through Mr. Shaw and others, imported skins of 

 such Birds as he was unable to find in the neighbour- 

 hood. The rarest local Bird is the Squacco Heron the 

 only one ever obtained in Shropshire. About the year 

 1840, Mr. Pinches, with his brother-in-law, Mr. Buddi- 

 com, procured some Red Grouse from Yorkshire, and 

 turned them out on the Longmynd, of which they had 

 the shooting. It is said that these were the first Red 

 Grouse ever known on the hills (though there were plenty 

 of Black Game), and that from them have sprung the large 

 numbers now found there. The portrait here given is from 

 a pencil sketch in the possession of Mr. Buddicom, and 

 shows Mr. Pinches in his hunting cap. The collection 

 of Birds is still in the same house, and passed with 

 the other property to Mr. Buddicom, father of the 

 present owner. 



John Rocke, eldest son of the Rev. John Rocke, was 

 born at the old Rectory, Clungunford, June 10, 1817, 

 He went to school at Bath, and thence to Harrow, 

 where his career as a naturalist commenced, for, whilst 

 there, he began to collect and stuff Birds, thus forming 

 a nucleus of the museum which became the delight and 

 pride of the later years of his life. In 1836 he 

 entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, and took his 



