220 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER 



continues to carry it out as he proposes, I feel sure it will be a 

 good thing and do him credit. I shall be glad to have all the 

 specimens he requires ordered from Naples. 



Writing from Avonbank, Stratford-on-Avon, on 

 April 9, 1896, he says : 



I am glad to see those cuttings. That from the Times, which 

 I had already seen, is far the best ; and I like the notice in the 

 Daily News of Waterhouse's Life Histories of Insects, which are 

 some of the best things that have been added of late to the 

 public exhibition, and will become still more valuable as the 

 series increases. . . . What you tell me of your Italian friend is 

 very interesting, and I am glad you have written to Salvador! 

 about him. If he really stuffed that elephant, he must have some 

 genius for the work that we should do well to develop. 



On August 7 of the same year he wrote : 



MY DEAR FAGAN I have this afternoon received your letter 



of the 5th, and return 's account, and also enclose a 



Spanish letter about our publication, which you will probably be 

 able to make out and have attended to. I am not surprised that 

 the Office of Works declined to cut the terra-cotta skirting, as the 

 case can easily be adapted to fit the recess. As to the ducks, 1 



made a great mistake, for I had particularly asked Lord 



Walsingham to send some on the ist and 1 5th of August and 

 the ist September. But one came shortly before I started, and 

 coming at an irregular time, and being an old female, I did not 

 want it stuffed (I mean mounted by Pickhardt), so gave it to 

 to eat. But I did not mean this to apply to future con- 

 signments ! If not given for mounting, the skins should be kept. 

 Thanks for the Daily Telegraph with its account of the Museum. 

 I saw the number of visitors in the Times, but had forgotten that 

 there were so many last August, and thought they must have 

 made a mistake. I am glad that the Sunday visitors keep up in 

 numbers. 



1 Examples of " eclipse " plumage. 



