VOL. VII.] RICHARD JOHN USSHER. 18S 



sought in his early love for ornithology. His summers 

 were spent at Ardmore, on the coast of Waterford, 

 where the cliffs and seabirds were a constant source of 

 attraction, and Ussher became an expert cHmber and 

 a great egg-coUector. 



Almost every part of Ireland was visited in ceaseless 

 search for the breeding-haunts of rare birds, and the 

 assistance of correspondents was enhsted in nearly 

 every county, so that his egg-collection became almost 

 unique, and was acquired some years ago by the National 

 Museum in Dublin. After its removal from Cappagh, 

 he gave up egg-collecting, but his energy as an orni- 

 thologist was even greater than before. Annual summer 

 journeys, not only to the chffs and islands of the west 

 coast but also to the lakes and marshes of the midlands, 

 were undertaken. 



Students of ornithology in Ireland have been singularly 

 few compared with Great Britain, and from the time 

 of William Thompson, 1849-51, down to 1900, with 

 the exception of A. G. More's valuable List of Irish 

 Birds (1885 and 1890), one was at a loss to know where 

 to seek for information. Papers and notes were scattered 

 everywhere, and the contents of private museums were 

 practically unknown. Ussher, after immense labour 

 and correspondence, tabulated and extracted everything 

 he considered of value. Possessing leisure, enthusiasm 

 and knowledge, and being a persistent and unwearying 

 letter-writer, he collected material from all sources 

 with astonishing assiduity, and we have the result in 

 the well-known Birds of Ireland, a volume which will 

 hold its own with any of a similar kind for painstaking 

 and original work. It is not merely a topographical 

 ornithology : it also contains descriptive notes on the 

 habits of birds — some quite new, and almost aU simply 

 and happily expressed. 



If Ussher had any fault, it was being over-patient 

 with correspondents, whose feelings he would avoid 

 hurting by any show of increduHty. He delighted to 

 encourage poor men by presenting them with books 

 and pamphlets on Natural History, and for their benefit 

 lie wrote long letters of explanation. 



