126 Alexander Goodman More. [i860 



in their ranks, and he had gratefully accepted Mr. New- 

 ton's " flattering proposal >3 to nominate him for the 

 vacancy. But his absence from the "Feast of Science" 

 weakened his chances; and Mr. R. F. Tomes, who had 

 lately contributed to the "Ibis" an article on "White's 

 Thrush," was elected to the coveted place. He succeeded 

 in his next candidature four and a-half years afterwards. 



The "Guide to the Isle of Wight " came out in July, and 

 he had the satisfaction of seeing the " Natural History " 

 very favourably noticed by both botanists and zoologists. 

 True, doubts were thrown on some of its details, and it 

 would have been strange if these had altogether escaped 

 the critical reviewer, considering in how short a time the 

 book had been written : even while it was printing, errors 

 as to both birds and plants had come to his knowledge 

 too late for correction, and a list of lepidoptera had reached 

 him containing sixteen additional moths whose insertion 

 was then impossible. But perhaps what troubled him 

 most (though at a later date) were two cases of mistaken 

 identity among those little-studied animals the Bats ; and 

 it is characteristic of his scrupulousness in such matters 

 that the last note he ever contributed to a scientific journal 

 was a correction of one of these.* 



Mr. Newbould, on receipt of a copy, wrote warmly " I 

 quite believe it the best specimen of guide-book natural 

 history I have ever seen in the English language." Calmer, 

 no doubt, was the praise of the " Ibis " reviewer. " Mr. 

 More's treatment of the subject affords a favourable con- 

 trast to the carelessness exhibited in the natural history 

 chapters in most hand-books." But possibly these are 

 only two ways of saying the same thing. 



* Supposed occurrence of Vespertilio murinus in England. Correction of an 

 error. " Zool." (3) xviii., p. 148, 1894. 



