i89ij Turning on the Search-light. 369 



often dredged for marine shells by Barlee, &c. The land-shells have 

 been quite neglected. 



September i^th, 1891. 



DEAR B. -HAMILTON, .... Please, at once, set apart a good- 

 sized Pickle Bottle, filled with methylated spirits of wine. And into it 

 let there be cast whether you are at home or not any doubtful speci- 

 mens of Bats or Shrews, each of course with a label, written in pencil, 

 attached, with date and locality. You are sure in time to get some 

 rarities, and in the spirit they will keep as long as you like without any 

 trouble. The tall fin you saw ? How fond you are of setting me 

 puzzles ! Well, the B.* Shark ought to show two fins, back fin and tail 

 fin, and the back fin is triangular, not narrow and tall, and should not 

 move much. But I think a Grampus would move faster. You do not 

 say whether it rolled or not. These tall fins have often been referred 

 to a male Grampus of some sort, but I do not think they have been 

 examined on land, at any rate not in England. 



These were happy years, and uneventful, except ornitho- 

 logically. " I shall never," says one of his papers, " forget 

 the occasion when my friend, Mr. R. M. Barrington, pro- 

 duced from one small bag three such extraordinary prizes 

 as the Short-toed Lark, the Yellow-browed Warbler, and 

 a Red-breasted Flycatcher, which he had just received from 

 his correspondents at the Irish Lighthouses." Such were 

 among his greatest pleasures. One more letter is quoted 

 here, lest botany might seem to have been forgotten. 



November zSth, 1891. 



DEAR MR. STEWART, Thank you very much for your kindness in 

 sending the No. of Field Club with Corry's Paper, which will be of the 

 greatest use to a friendf who is going a second time to Burren next 

 spring. He found Neotinea in several localities this year. Still more 

 for the very full manner in which you have taken the trouble to answer 

 my troublesome inquiries. I was really sorry to bother you with so 

 many questions. Still I know that you are as anxious as I am myself to 

 search out the real facts ; only it is not everybody who would take so 

 much trouble and send such clear replies. I hope to write again pre- 

 sently, but I do not think there is anything more to say this time except 



about the Arctia Rubus chamaemorus : I can quite understand 



how you doubt this ; but Admiral Jones was a good botanist, and had 

 been much in Scotland, and (was) likely to know the plant. I think it 

 has been sought too near the top of the mountain. It grows often along 

 with and under heather, on boggy or peaty ground. I do hope that 

 yet another search will be made. 



Basking Shark. f The late Mr. H. C. Levinge, D.L. 



2B 



