238 Prof. Hughes, Biographical Notice [Oct. 29, 



contributors, our first chronicler and one of the founders of the 

 Society's museum. We find in our Publications many papers 

 written by him, some dating back as far as 1825. They referred 

 chiefly to the anatomy of birds, their plumage and the structure 

 of their features; their migrations, and their systematic classifica- 

 tion. Besides these he communicated the results of his observations 

 on other zoological groups from mammals to molluscs and many 

 interesting descriptions of natural phenomena. Elsewhere also 

 he published numerous results of scientific investigations in 

 Meteorology and Zoology, retaining his activity and continuing 

 his work to within 18 months of his death in his 94th year. 



Born in 1800, educated at Eton and St John's College in this 

 University, he was associated throughout his early life with people 

 of culture and scientific tastes, for his maternal grandfather was 

 a distinguished physician, his grandmother a Wollaston, and 

 Chepstow, the naturalist, his uncle. Besides which his father was 

 an agriculturist of note and a keen sportsman. Leonard Jenyns, 

 as he was called before he assumed the surname of Blometield, 

 when only just 23 was ordained to the curacy of Swaffham Bulbeck, 

 not far from his father's place, Bottisham Hall. He was soon after 

 appointed to the living and held it for 30 years. He had joined 

 the Philosophical Society in 1822 and being so near Cambridge 

 often met his old friend Henslow, as well as Sedgwick, Whewell, 

 and many others. 



After his marriage in 1844 he frequently visited Oxford and, 

 at the house of his wife's relatives Dr Charles Danbeny, the well- 

 known Oxford Professor, and Dr Bulley, the President of Magdalen, 

 he used to meet Phillips and Rolleston, and Westwood, and many 

 another leader of Science, and thus he was stimulated to devote 

 what time he could spare from the duties of his calling to the 

 pursuit of scientific research. 



Of the 58 or more books and papers which he published a 

 large number contain original observations of permanent value. 



He was soon widely known as a man of extensive knowledge 

 and sound judgment, and was invited to draw up a Report on 

 Zoology for the British Association in 1834, and to write the 

 article on Yarrell's British Birds in the London and Westminster 

 Review in 1840. At Darwin's request he described the Fishes 

 obtained during the voyage of the Beagle. 



His Manual of British Vertebrate Animals was published by 

 the University Press in 1836. This was followed, ten years later, 

 by his Observations on Natural History, which was not, however, 

 sufficiently popular for the general public : nor were his Observa- 

 tions on Meteorology, which followed in 1858. 



When his friend Henslow died in 1861 Blomefield wrote his 

 Memoir. 



