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THE LATE H. M. UPCHER. 



Henry Morris Upcher, who died on April 6th, 1921, at 

 Sheringham in Norfolk, at the age of eighty-two, was a well- 

 known all-round sportsman, who as a shooter of game had 

 few equals ; so quick could he be with the gun that when in 

 Palestine with Canon Tristram, whose expedition he joined 

 in 1864, he earned among the Arabs the nickname of " a 

 father of two eyes." On one occasion he brought down 

 an Eagle-Owl and a Woodcock by a double shot, out of a 

 cave high up in a bare ravine near Gennesaret, whence they 

 were startled together by Tristram's shooting a Wall-Creeper. 

 This journey, during which the party penetrated beyond 

 the Jordan, was fruitful of great results, new species being 

 secured, and the distribution of others extended (see Ihis, 

 1865, pp. 67, 241 et seq.). 



Before this Upcher had already been to Iceland with 

 C. W. Shepherd and Mr. George Fowler in 1862, when they 

 visited a part of the island previously unattempted, but 

 brought back no news of the Great Auk, nor were they able 

 to decide what species of wild goose, or whether more than 

 one species, bred there. At Vigr, on the north coast, they 

 had an opportunity of seeing a large Eider farm, which has 

 been graphically described by C. W. Shepherd in his North- 

 west Peninsula of Iceland (p. 104) . 



Having joined the British Ornithologists' Union so far 

 back as 1864, Upcher had been for many years its senior 

 living elected member. 



Always a supporter of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' 

 Society, which he joined as far back as 1871, Upcher became 

 a Vice-President, besides filling the Presidential chair in 1883-4. 

 Especially was he concerned with the welfare of the birds of 

 his own county, and detesting indiscriminate shooting, his 

 Presidential address resolved itself into an appeal for their 

 more adequate protection. In Volume IV. of the Transactions 

 will be found a most interesting paper, entitled " A Day's 

 Bird-Nesting in Norfolk" {N.N.Tr., IV., p. 679), chiefly 

 about the ducks on Wretham meres, always a great resort 

 for the AnatidcB which there receive protection. We can, 

 however, hardly accept the story of a Merlin taking a Curlew 

 on Wells saltings {N.N.Tr., III., p. 576). Upcher did not 

 himself see the bird, which was more probably a tiercel 

 Peregrine, a not uncommon migrant on the coast. 



Although the late Mr. Upcher showed little taste for 



