72 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xv. 



early life, serving through the Mutiny and various other 

 campaigns, including the American Civil War between 1862 

 and 1865. In 1875, at the age of thirty-six, he was selected 

 to serve as naturahst to Sir George Nares's Polar Expedition 

 in H.M.S. Alert, when, as is now well known, he discovered 

 and brought home the young of the Knot from Grinnell Land 

 in 82° 33' N. latitude. In this connection may be recalled 

 the amusing and exciting description of his finding, two 

 years previously, a nest and eggs of the Dotterel in Scotland 

 with his lifelong friend Harvie-Brown, and recorded by the 

 latter in the second of his Moray volumes (p. 173). 



It was in 1880, when he settled at Wells, Norfolk, where 

 he continued to reside until he inherited his Burwash property 

 in 1902, that the writer of this notice, then a boy, first made 

 his acquaintance. He had just returned from the West Indies 

 and was a spare, wiry man, full of energy, and a most fascina- 

 ting companion to a boy eager to learn all he could about 

 birds. For although Feilden was an exceptionally well- 

 informed, all-round naturalist, yet there is no doubt but that 

 the study of birds was his favourite hobby. No sooner had 

 he arrived in Norfolk than he joined the Norfolk and Norwich 

 Naturalists' Society, and later contributed many communica- 

 tions to its Transactions, the most interesting of which, from 

 the ornithological point of view, is his account of his finding, 

 in 1888, a stuffed Great Bustard, in a cottage at Peterstone, 

 near Holkham, which had been " used as a plaything by the 

 children both indoors and in the garden." This bird had 

 been shot in Norfolk, and in the opinion of Feilden was almost 

 certainly one of the aboriginal race. It is now in the Earl 

 of Leicester's collection at Holkham. In 1885 he was elected 

 President of the Society, and took as the subject of his 

 Address the Polar origin of Life on the Pack. He was a keen 

 sportsman and was shooting throughout the season up to 

 the last year or so of his life. He was elected into the B.O.U. 

 in 1873, and was a corresponding member of the Zoological 

 Society. 



Mrs. Feilden died last year ; there were no children of 

 the marriage. S. H. Long. 



