XCVlii PROCEEDINGS. 



Central Park menagerie, New York, under a recommendation 

 from Prof. S. F. Baird, and the next year went there to 

 assume the position, but displeased by what he considered 

 to be an over-abrupt reception, declined the appointment 

 and returned to Halifax. He then started a new zoological 

 garden near his earlier one, which he maintained for about 

 three years. A couple of years before his death, although of 

 venerable age, he built a museum annex to his house in Hali- 

 fax where he was surrounded by a large collection of native 

 birds. Ornithology was his chief study, and his knowledge of 

 our local birds was extensive, and would have been much 

 greater had he made .a practice of keeping notes. He gave 

 freely of his information to others, and delighted in encourag- 

 ing in young people the outdoor study of nature. As an 

 taxidermist he possessed rare skill, being the best workman of 

 this kind we have ever had in Nova Scotia, and receiving 

 bronze medals at the London exhibitions of 1851 and 1862 

 and the Dublin exhibition of 1865, and a silver one at Paris 

 in 1867. His Paris exhibit was praised by Sir Wyville Thom- 

 son in the Illustrated London News. He mounted some 

 800 moose-heads, and specimens of his work were supplied to 

 various European sovereigns, and large quantities went to 

 various museums. He was an original member of this In- 

 stitute, although not taking up his membership till a year later, 

 and served on the council. In 1862 .he was elected a corres- 

 ponding member of the Zoological Society of London. Owing 

 to his great lack of literary training, he wrote very little, but 

 his store of self-acquired knowledge was disseminated verbally 

 or by letters, and others profited by it. Had he possessed more 

 education and scientific training, I have no doubt the native 

 genius of the man would have caused him to make a more 

 notable record among our naturalists. Three papers by him 

 appeared in our Transactions his only published work. His 

 'Land Birds of Nova Scotia' (Trans., I, 1865-66), was the first 

 full list of the kind we have, 'with the exception of Lt. Blakis- 



