WHITE— A Sketch of the Life of Samuel White. 



and the specimens had to be hidden far away from the house 

 in a large hollow tree, a hiding place known only to themselves. 

 The surviving brother, William, told me, that one day he was 

 working by himself and had hung his coat on an old stump 

 of a tree> and that a little Brown Flycatcher (Microeca fas- 

 cinans), after his way, came making a. great fuss at the un- 

 usual object of a coat, and soon this noise attracted a Flame- 

 breasted Robin (Littlera clirysoptera phoenicea). William took 

 up a stone or stick and knocked it over. The perpetrator 

 of the deed, who is close on eighty years now, says he can re- 

 member as if it were yesterday how overcome by emotion he 

 was at handling the first robin of the species, and said that 

 day seemed as if it would never end, when he could take it to 

 his brother, Samuel, that he might stuff it. At last this was 

 accomplished, and the beautiful robin was added to their grow- 

 ing collection. This last addition had such a fascination for 

 them that they could not help but look at it several times in 

 the day. It may be this that roused the father's suspicions, 

 and he at last detected the first museum in the hollow tree, and 

 complete destruction followed. This was a sad blow, and on 

 top of this their friend the blacksmith moved two or three 

 miles nearer town. The lads were never daunted. The great 

 love of so glorious a natural science had developed a brain 

 power that could not be baulked, and on Sundays they slipped 

 away, and cut across country to their old friend, who possessed 

 a light gun, and after procuring a bird or two they would 

 fetch them home, and skin them. The boys were grow- 

 ing up now, and their father having taken up country in the 

 South-East, and stocked it with cattle and horses, the sons 

 were kept busy at home or at station life. Samuel White be- 

 came a very fine horseman: in fact all he undertook he mas- 

 tered. During their station life the brothers had little time 

 to indulge in their hobby. Still they managed to add here and 

 there a specimen, and they were always observant, and the 

 love of nature was gaining a greater and greater hold upon 

 them. Birds that were seen every day of the week in those 

 times are now wiped out for ever. Take for instance one bird, 

 the Swamp Parrot (Pezoporus terrestris). These early 

 ornithologists have seen the black boys dismount two or three 

 times in a day while driving cattle to devour this bird's eggs — 

 a bird which is for ever gone in South Australia. 



(To he continued.) 



