364 Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, ^c. 



now have an additional reason for becoming intimately ac- 

 quainted with the contents of every paper bearing upon orni- 

 thology, our studies on behalf of the new ' Record' must neces- 

 sarily be rather beneficial to ' The Ibis' than the contrary. 



It is with no common feeling of regret that we have to place 

 on record the deaths of two men who have been so actively de- 

 voted to the pursuit of zoology as Charles Waterton and John 

 Richardson. The first expired from the efi'ects of an accident at 

 his well-known seat, Walton Hall, on the 27th of May, being 

 then in the eighty -fourth year of his age. It is unnecessary for 

 us to comment on the career of Mr. Waterton. He has left us 

 an ' Autobiography' which supplies all that could be said on the 

 subject, and the incidents of his life have been better told by 

 himself than they could be by another. It is only to be de- 

 plored that the bulk of his observations are rendered practically 

 useless by his systematic disregard of any precise nomencla- 

 ture — that which can alone make (as it is alone its use) such 

 observations available to others. But we believe it is still 

 within the power of a warm admirer of the deceased naturahst 

 to render a very great service to his memory. If any careful 

 ornithologist were to go over Mr. Waterton^s beautifully- mounted 

 collection of birds, with the "Wanderings" and "Essays" in hand, 

 he might be able to refer most of the specimens to the passages 

 which mention them, and by publishing a catalogue establish, and 

 preserve to all time, the desirable connexion between both, which 

 is on the point of being irrecoverably lost. Unless this is done, 

 Mr. Waterton's works will in future serve as now to amuse the 

 reader by the bi'illiancy of their language, but, except in occa- 

 sional instances, they will scarcely instruct him. 



Sir John Richardson died at Grasmere on the 5th of June, 

 aged seventy-seven. Though less addicted to ornithology than 

 to several other branches of science, his share in the second 

 volume of the * Fauna Boreali-Americana" has long been highly 

 appreciated. His active and laborious life deserves, and will 

 doubtless obtain, the recognition of a memoir, which can hardly 

 fail to do justice to the heroism and talents displayed by so 

 intrepid an explorer and practical a naturalist. 



