The Zoologist — November, 1873. 3779 



locality are full of interesting notes on ornithological subjects, 

 describing such birds as had already come under his notice, and 

 comparing the scarcity or abundance of certain species, in that 

 portion of the principality, as contrasted with our eastern counties 

 —the almost total absence of the house sparrow and the number of 

 magpies striking him particularly on his first arrival. It was from 

 the pleasure which the perusal of these stray notes afi'orded me that 

 I strongly urged him, so soon as his acquaintance with that neigh- 

 bourhood would permit, to prepare a list, with observations on the 

 Birds of Pembrokeshire, and though, from reasons before alluded to, 

 he was disinclined to attempt it, I had the satisfaction of seeing my 

 suggestion carried out, in the admirable paper which he contributed 

 to the 'Zoologist' in 1866 (S. S. 132). This list, which, as he 

 remarked at the time, contained only those birds that he had seen, 

 or for which he had undoubted authority, was considerably enriched 

 by a second communication to the same journal in 1869 (Zool. 

 S. S. 1670), containing his own more recent observations, par- 

 ticularly on the coast, with the result of visits to local collections 

 and personal interviews or correspondence with the few resident 

 naturalists. The whole forms undoubtedly a valuable contribution 

 to the study of British Ornithology, and from a part of the kingdom 

 whence reliable notes on such matters are rarely obtainable j but in 

 reading his graphic description of a visit to the "Stack" rocks at 

 Flimstone, with the impressions made on his mind by the grandeur 

 of the scenery and the presence, in thousands, of the sea-fowl that 

 frequent those cliffs, one regrets that a doubt, on his part, of his 

 descriptive powers, should have left us so little from his pen. 



In this new vocation his force of character and earnestness of 

 purpose enabled him to surmount many difficulties, arising not less 

 from the dialect of the country than from local prejudices; and 

 I have reason to know that his name will be long remembered in 

 that neighbourhood in connection with an improved system of 

 farming operations, and the successful rearing of stock, for which 

 his experience in the twin counties of East Anglia had well 

 fitted him. He here developed also a taste for the cultivation of 

 fruit and flowers in the extensive forcing-houses on the estate, and 

 the success attending his earlier suggestions as to the mixture of 

 soils and a more eflfective drainage, led to his superintendence being 

 as much sought in that department as in the wider field of agri- 

 culture. More magnificent fruit, in size and flavour, I never saw 



