XIV 



not to do justice to his abilities ; and, though he graduated as a Senior 

 Optime in the Mathematical Tripos of 1857, it was thought that he could 

 easily have secured for himself a much higher place. The truth is, that 

 being a naturalist born as a child his delight was in gathering wild plants, 

 and bringing them to his elders to be named he devoted far more time 

 and attention to Natural History than to Mathematics, and diligently 

 worked, so far as opportunity would allow, at Zoology and Geology 

 birds and insects being his favourite study in the former, and in the 

 latter science the palaeontological branch. Rowing was also another 

 recreation, and he pulled the seventh oar in the boat sent by his college 

 to Henley in 1856. Being singularly apt with his fingers, he found 

 much occupation in carpentry and machine^ indeed, while at West- 

 minster, he and his elder brother (his senior by a few years only) 

 built and fitted two small steamers, which worked so efficiently 

 that they were bought to be used on some of the rivers in India. 

 With all these distracting tastes, it is not surprising that Osbert Salvin 

 should have studied mathematics only enough to ensure his attaining a 

 respec table degree,* and eventually the practical pursuit of zoology 

 asserted itself almost to the exclusion of its rivals. Coming from West- 

 minster he naturally had many friends among his old schoolfellows, 

 who had joined the Third Trinity Boat Club, composed wholly of men 

 from that school and Eton, and thus he came to know Mr. Frederick 

 Godman (an Etonian), with whom he was subsequently to become so 

 intimate a fellow-worker ; while he also formed a close acquaintance 

 with Mr. (afterwards Sir) Edward Newton, of Magdalene College, an 

 enthusiastic ornithologist, through whose means Mr. Salvin was intro- 

 duced to Mr. W. H. Hudleston (then Simpson). With this gentleman 

 Mr. Salvin, immediately after taking his degree, set out to join Mr. 

 (now Canon) Tristram, who was by marriage his second cousin, in the 

 Natural History Exploration of Tunis and Eastern Algeria, where the 

 party passed five months, throwing an abundance of light on the 

 zoology of those countries, as the accounts published in ' The Ibis ' for 

 1859 and 1860 shew. Soon after his return from this expedition, which 

 will always be memorable in the annals of Ornithology, Mr. Salvin pre- 

 pared to go to Central America, and in the autumn of 1857, proceeded 

 to Guatemala, in company with the late Mr. George lire Skinner, the 

 celebrated discoverer and importer of Orchids, staying in that country 

 till the middle of the following year, when on his way home he for a 

 short time joined Mr. Edward Newton, then in the Antilles. A few 

 months later, Mr. Salvin returned to Central America, henceforth 

 always to be associated with his name, since there he proved himself to 

 be unsurpassed as a collector, though those were the days of Bates and 

 Wallace. Like those great naturalists, he used intelligence in his col- 



* A place in the Natural Sciences Tripos of his clay did not of itself admit to a 

 degree, or he would probably have graduated in that way. 



