BY D. EMBLETON, M.D. 5 



Durham, there appeared a paper in 1831, by Mr. E,. E,. Wingatc, 

 entitled "Notice of a New Species of Swan," of which paper 

 John Hancock, in his admirable "Catalogue of the Birds of 

 Northumberland and Durham," thus modestly writes at page 

 145: "Mr. "Wingate's notice was read on the 20th of October, 

 1829, and published the following year" (in the Transactions 

 above named) "but by some unaccountable inadvertency my 

 specimen was not alluded to." And yet these two men had 

 been old friends. John's specimen, the subject of his discovery, 

 is in the Museum of the Society. Soon after the publication of 

 Mr. E. E. "Wingate's paper another appeared in the same volume, 

 by P. J. Selby, Esq., F.E.S.E., more minutely describing the 

 bird than Mr. Wingate had done. "Mr. Yarrell read at the 

 meeting of the Linnsean Society on Pebruary 19th, 1830, a 

 description of the bird, which was published in the Transactions 

 of that Society, Vol. XVI., page 445, 1833. He had previously 

 (November 24, 1829) given some account of the distinguishing 

 characters of this Swan to the Zoological Club of the above 

 Society."*' It was Tarrell who in 1829 gave the specific name 

 ^ BewicMV to the new Swan. 



In the year 1833 John went with his friends Mr. "W. C. Hewit- 

 son and Mr. Benjamin Johnson on an expedition to Norway, to 

 collect specimens of Natural History generally, — birds' skins 

 and eggs, insects and plants, and especially to add to our know- 

 ledge of the breeding places of those birds which migrate from 

 Norway to England to pass the winter months in our milder 

 climate. This was rather a bold enterprise at that time, when 

 no Englishmen had as yet found their way across the North Sea 

 to rent, and catch salmon in, the rivers of Norway, and where 

 the facilities of travel and accommodation in that country were 

 peculiar, and very unlike those of the present day. They left 

 Newcastle on board a Scotch brig, and arrived at Trondhjem in 

 seven days. After necessary preparation they started thence on 

 foot for the north, with a cart to carry their stores of food, their 

 implements, and collections. The northern part of their journey 

 was by boat, and thus they were enabled to visit and explore 



* Catalogue of the Birds of Northumberland and Durham, p. 145. 



