242 



NATURE 



[July i i, 1907 



is only a rough calculation, and may be wide ot the 

 mark. The number of species listed is approximately 

 650. Two samples of entries, slightly modified, are 

 given :— 



(i) Falco Gyrfalco, Linnaeus. .Sect. 192. Four. 

 West Finmark, May 7, 1854. "J. W. ipse." 



{2) Tringa subarquata, (Guldenstadt). Sect. 6065. 

 One. Kotelny Island, New Siberian Group, June 11, 

 1902. 



It might perhaps be objected that the collection con- 

 tains too many duplicates, and this redundance re- 

 ceives illustration, for instance, in the case of 

 Buffon's skua. The first egg of this species was ob- 

 tained by Wolley himself near the sources of the 

 Tana on June 20, 1857, both birds being shot, and 

 very few additional specimens were obtained during 

 his lifetime. But from i860 to 1862, the latter being 

 the great lemming-year, the number of entries, 

 mostly of pairs, occupies about nine pages of the 

 catalogue. The fact is that Wolley had originated a 

 movement which could not be stopped, and his col- 

 lectors, having been once put on the right track, went 

 on collecting mechanically, as it were, and without 

 remorse. The same thing occurred in the case of the 

 waxwing and some other species, the eg.gs of which 

 were previously unknown, or at least unauthenticated. 



It must not, however, be supposed that the 

 " Ootheca Wolleyana " is a mere list of eggs, .for 

 the notes, whether of author or editor, are copious, 

 and both interesting and valuable, not only to col- 

 lectors, but to ornithologists in general. The above 

 calculations may serve to give some idea of the 

 labour involved in preparing for the press this im- 

 mense mass of material— a labour of love, in the words 

 of the editor, since he regards the catalogue as largely 

 a record of ancient friendship. Its freedom from 

 typographical errors is remarkable, considering the 

 constant change of type, and the number of technical 

 names. Nor is the editor dismayed by the length of 

 time which has elapsed since its commencement, con- 

 sidering that the delay has not been without its 

 advantages, as specimens unattainable in Wolley's 

 lifetime, and for long after his death, have been 

 acquired, and are recorded, some in the body of the 

 work and others in the supplement. It should also 

 be remembered that the joint collection, of which this 

 is the catalogue, has been given to the University of 

 Cambridge, " in whose museum of zoology," Prof. 

 Newton trusts, " it may long continue." 



The primary object of the " Ootheca " is to record 

 the labours of the naturalist whose name it bears, and 

 in further fulfilment of this duty a most interesting 

 memoir of John Wolley is added (part ii., pp. ix- 

 xxxix) by way of introduction to vol. i. There is a 

 good likeness of him, based on a photograph taken 

 about a year before his death. In that likeness we 

 recognise the calm determination which was so char- 

 acteristic of a man who, in the words of Hewitson, 

 " had become as familiar with the king of birds as 

 others are with crows and magpies." That was in 

 what we may call the heroic stage of his career, when 

 he was equally prepared to scale a precipice after an 

 eagle or to swim out to an osprey's nest in the 

 NO. 1967, VOL. 76] 



coldest of water. Four years afterwards the birds'- 

 nester of 1849 had made no inconsiderable progress in 

 the study of natural history, and thus, after the 

 example of Linnjeus, as also pointed out by Hewit- 

 son, he wended his way into Central Lapland, and 

 laid the foundation of a series of campaigns which 

 have made his memory famous in the annals of 

 oology. It is not so much the hardships which he 

 endured in the quest of eggs, though these were suffi- 

 ciently severe, as his powers of endurance through 

 three winters in Lapland that astonish us. Perhaps 

 it was this mode of life, in conjunction with his re- 

 markable indifference to ordinary comforts, which 

 was partly the cause of his early death, before he had 

 time fully to work out the results of his great experi- 

 ence. In 1858, together with the editor, he undertook 

 a pious pilgrimage to the last breedingj-place of the 

 great auk on Eldey, in Iceland. .An abstract by the 

 editor of Wolley's researches in Iceland respecting 

 the great auk appeared in the third volume of the 

 Ibis. The same year he became one of the original 

 members of the British Ornithologists' L^nion, and 

 contributed two classical papers to the first volume of 

 its journal. His death, in 1859, created the first 

 vacancy in its ranks, and it is the opinion of all 

 who knew him that, had he been spared, he 

 would have taken a high place amongst the leading 

 naturalists of the second half of the nineteenth 

 century. 



As regards the collection, that portion formed by 

 Wolley dates from the early 'forties, when he w^as a 

 boy at Eton, sometimes occupied in chasing dab- 

 chicks on the Thames. The portion formed by the 

 Newtons was commenced probably somewhat later, 

 and continued at intervals almost to the present time. 

 Whilst residing at Elveden, they enjoyed great ad- 

 vantages for working some of the best districts of 

 East -Anglia, and were not slow to profit by their 

 opportunities. \\'hen Wolley went to Cambridge in 

 1843. the fens afforded very good hunting-ground, 

 though harriers were getting scarce even then. That 

 paradise of birds, Whittlesea Mere, was still intact, 

 not being drained until 1850. He succeeded in ob- 

 taining eggs of all three species of harrier, though 

 none apparentlv of his own taking. The other rarities 

 of the fens, such as the grasshopper-warbler, Savi's 

 warbler, bearded tit, &c., likewise great numbers of 

 spotted crake and water rail, he obtained second- 

 hand, sometimes through " Plover George " (Harvey 

 of Baits-bight), whom he always distrusted. 



It would lengthen this notice unduly if \ve were 

 disposed to enter into any detail as to the eggs ob- 

 tained during his famous Sutherland campaign in 

 1849. He succeeded in proving that it is the grey-lag 

 goose, and not the bean goose, which breeds in the 

 north of Scotland, whilst his success amongst the 

 eagles was duly recorded by Hewitson, whose third 

 edition was greatly enriched by Wolley's results, both 

 in Scotland and in Lapland. The editor of the 

 " Ootheca " in many cases reproduces these extracts 

 from \\'olIey's letters to Hewitson, or substitutes for 

 them the original notes from the egg-book, occa- 

 sionally including passages which had been omitted. 



