6 CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL 



pocket with gun-wads and as they walked about the 

 woods and warrens at Elveden to transfer to another 

 pocket one wad for each species of bird seen. In the 

 evening they recorded their observations in an elaborate 

 register,* and in this way they began to have some 

 knowledge of the internal and local movements of birds 

 as well as of the more conspicuous migrations of spring 

 and autumn. From the keeping of birds in cages, which 

 was naturally a feature of this period in their careers, 

 they advanced to the more difficult business of keeping 

 wild-fowl. The meres of Wretham and Stanford supplied 

 them with several species of wild duck, with which they 

 made experiments in hybridisation. More fortunate 

 than the ducks, which often came to untimely ends, was 

 a swan : " for the last six years I have had a Hooper, a 

 most engaging bird at times almost too familiar, for he 

 invades the house, where his company is not always 

 most agreeable." 



In 1844 Alfred went to Mr. Walker's school at 

 Stetchworth, near Newmarket, and from this time dates 

 his life-long correspondence with Edward. When they 

 were in England the two brothers wrote to each other 

 every day, and by every mail when they were abroad ; 

 and each one kept carefully all the letters of the other. 

 In early days they addressed each other by their 

 pet-names, "Taff" and " Tedge," but these were 

 considered childish by their elders, and a more formal 

 epistle was marked " for the family," while their own 

 particular business was " not to be shown." School at 

 Mr. Walker's was not very arduous, and holidays, which 

 depended on the getting of so many marks, seem to have 

 been frequent. Alfred often drove over to Elveden, a 

 distance of about nineteen miles, for Sunday, and one 



* A specimen page of this register was published in the Transactions of 

 the Norfolk and, Norwich Nat. Hist. Soc., 1871, vol. i. 



