1887] Last Visit to England. 33 l 



not take more than a day. Any men accustomed to butchers' work 



could do it, and I would pay well for it. Would Mr. undertake this 



for me, do you think ? or could ? I am so sorry that this fine chance 



has been lost. 



Now, please tell me, is there any part of the gills with the whalebone 

 combs still preserved ? If once cut out, these only want drying. But, 

 most especially, I would ask you, kindly to do me the favour to see 

 whether the clasper fins of the male fish, with their strong white teeth, 

 or points, are to be had ? If any fisherman has them, or even the teeth 

 alone ', I want them badly for the Museum. 



I hope that you have received the list of Irish birds, which will I hope 

 be useful to you, and 1 shall be very much obliged if you will jot down 

 at once any notes or observations you may have to make on any of the 

 birds. 



Before the year was out he recorded the first addition to 

 his list of Irish birds. Shot during his absence in England, 

 it was in one sense the best of three great rarities added 

 that year to the Irish collection in the Museum. A White's 

 Thrush, presented in January, was the third specimen of 

 its kind known to have occurred in Ireland ; a Spinous 

 Shark, whose head and tail were secured in June, was the 

 second ; and the Wood Sandpiper, shot in county Wicklow 

 in August, and now presented by Dr. Benson, was the first. 

 Notes on each of these three occurrences were sent by Mr. 

 More to the " Zoologist" for 1885. 



He also tried to start an agitation for the naturaliza- 

 tion of the grayling in Irish streams. But the breaking- 

 up of all his plans had now set in with irresistible force, and 

 as winter advanced the state of his health became more and 

 more disquieting. He had already, though he little guessed 

 it, left England where both his parents were still living 

 for the last time, and had taken his last walk with the com- 

 panion of his innumerable botanical excursions, when, one 

 afternoon in August, he accompanied her from Buxton to 

 visit the lovely scenery of CheeTor. The long and painful 

 illness which had threatened him for so many years was 

 visibly approaching, and the concluding words of his journal 

 for 1885 are, " Becoming worse." 



It was on his father's 8gth birthday (February nth, 

 1886) that he found himself too ill to leave his bed a state 



