REMINISCENCES OF ANDREW DOWNS. XXIX 



Frank Buckland, an old friend of my own,, was delighted to 

 meet Downs. Every one of note visited his grounds, including 

 our sovereign, King Edward, the late Duke of Edinburgh, Prince 

 Jerome Bonaparte, and many others. Pleasure excursions to the 

 head of the Arm by steamers often bore numbers of Halifaxians 

 bent on an afternoon's ramble in his charming domain. 



Offered the post of superintendent of the New York Central 

 Park Menagerie in 1867, he declined the post through some mis- 

 understanding, and, giving up his grounds at the North West Arm, 

 died in Halifax on 26th August, 1892, aged eighty-one years all 

 but one month.* 



In concluding this paper, I think I cannot do better than close 

 with the words of our friend in ending one of his contributions 

 to the proceedings of our Institute, the subject of which was the 

 land birds of Nova Scotia, read in 1865 : 



" Having now arrived, gentlemen, at the end of my present 

 list, I must state that all the facts I have given may be safely 

 relied on as they are the result of forty years 7 experience in bird 

 life. And I would, here, as it is the very first time I have ever 

 appeared as a reader in public, take the opportunity of counselling 

 the young men of Halifax to take more interest than they do in 

 the natural history of their country. Many an hour passed in 

 walking up and down Granville Street in tight boots might be 

 devoted far more profitably to studying the quiet scenes of nature. 

 If I had listened to the advice given me by the young men of my 

 time, I do not think I should have had the pleasure of appearing 

 here this evening; and instead of being happy, as I now am, in the 

 presence of my brother naturalists, and possessed of a cheerful 

 home to which I can retire, surrounded by my feathered favourites, 

 I should most probably either have descended to an early grave, or 

 been the habitual frequenter of the tobacco and dram shops. No ; 

 the country for me, before all the pleasure and grandeur of the 

 town. Old Waterton once said to me he would sooner be in the 

 woods than in the finest palace in Europe." 



* Other particulars regarding his life, and a list of his published papers, 

 will be found in Mr. Piers's article before referred to. 



