ßl8 Cummings, A biographical sketch of Col. George Montagu. 



(Tringa canuhis). He gives an excellent account of the Ruff 

 which he kept in confinement for many years. Montagu disposes 

 of both the "Brown Tern" and the "Brown-headed Gull" which he 

 shows to be only the young in immature plumage. "The Winter 

 Gull" is also correctly represented as the Common Gull (Lanes 

 canus). The type of the American Bittern (Botmi7'2is Icntigino- 

 siis) which he made known in 1813, is in the British Museum. 

 Montagu claimed to have been the first to discover the cause 

 of the distemper in chickens known as the "gapes". It is some- 

 times said that Mrs. Blackburn ("Nature", 1872, Vol. 5, p. 383) 

 was the first to confirm Jenner's controverted statements about 

 the Cuckoo's ejection of the young of the foster parent. But it 

 appears that Montagu corroborated Jenner's statements as early 

 as 1802 in his Dictionary where he tells us that his own obser- 

 vations were actually made before Jenner's 



He corrected the mistake of "that celebrated author Mr. 

 Pennant" over the "Brown Owl" which was only a variety of the 

 Tawny Owl (Syrnium ahico). He settled the matter by killing 

 this bird from the same nest as the Tawny Owl. 



It is interesting to find him writing that the Osprey {^Pandion 

 haliäetus) "seems to be more plentiful in Devonshire than in any 

 other part of the Kingdom" and "has been shot almost every 

 year." While crossing the River Avon, at Aveton Gifford in 181 1 

 he watched one hawking for fish. 



He proved that the Scaup Duck (Fultgula inarila) previously 

 confused under two species was sexually dimorphic, one "species" 

 being the male and the other the female. On the subject of 

 migration he believed that the majority of Swallows migrated but 

 that some were detained by accident and became torpid and perished 

 before the return of the warmer weather. It is to be observed 

 that he did not embrace Gilbert White's heresy of hibernation. 

 The first adequate account of the Dartford Warbler ( Melizophihts 

 imdahis), discovered by Latham in Kent came from Montagu's pen. 

 He added the Ciri Bunting (Eniberiza cirlus)^ the Little White 

 Heron (jìrdea garzhetta), the Red-breasted Snipe (Mäcrorhamphus 

 grùeitsj and the Little Gull (Larus nmiutus) to the British list and 

 includes the Great Black Woodpecker (Pictts martius) "with 

 considerable doubt." Montagu was an extremely careful man. 



One of the best of his contributions to the Wernerian So- 

 ciety was his paper on the Gannet (Sula bassana) in which a 



