b MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF JOHN HANCOCK, 



In 1845 he accompanied his friend Mr. W. C. Hewitson on 

 an expedition to Switzerland, where John applied himself espe- 

 cially to the observation of birds and the collection of their eggs 

 and skins, whilst his friend devoted himself to the study of the 

 diurnal Lepidoptera, and in these pursuits they mutually aided 

 each other. 



They left London for Antwerp on the 8th of June, thence 

 they passed up the Ehine to Cologne and Basel, then on to 

 Berne, Thun, and Kandersteig, the Gemmi and Leukerbad. 

 Having examined the three last localities, Hewitson at times on 

 horseback and John always on foot, each with his butterfly net, 

 and John in addition carrying a gun slung over his shoulder, they 

 proceeded down the Yalais, and encountered the mosquitoes of 

 Martigny ; by the Col de Balme they crossed over to Chamounix, 

 examining that valley from the Mer de Grlace to La Flegere. 

 Keturning to the Gemmi for additional research they afterwards 

 made their way by Grindelwald and Interlachen to Thun, Berne, 

 and Luzern. Here the friends parted, Hewitson going to Italy 

 with some ladies, Hancock alone to Belgium, and then to Eng- 

 land, where he arrived on August 22nd. 



One can imagine his delight on hearing the Nightingale on 

 the banks of the Ehine, for the first time in his life, and wit- 

 nessing the Storks and their lofty nests ; also at discovering, in 

 the Canton Yalais, the Alpine Swift, the Ptarmigan, the Alpine 

 Crow, the Shrike, and a flock of Hoopoes, and at being able to 

 purchase of Herr Anderegg, near Leukerbad, the skin of the 

 Lammergeier which now conspicuously adorns and almost lives 

 again in our Museum. He visited the Museum of Berne, and 

 entered in his Journal, " Some of the birds are tolerably stuffed, 

 and the specimens of Falco fulvus, L., Eagle Owl, Bearded Vul- 

 ture, or Lammergeier, Giraffe, and Leopard are creditable pieces 

 of art." At Grindelwald he got the "Wall Creeper exactly at 

 the rock precipice where he said it would be found. At Inter- 

 lachen "he was disgusted with the English here, who dress for 

 dinner and all that sort of thing." He was enraptured with the 

 view from Berne of the snow-capped mountains of the Oberland, 

 and the scene from Luzern was "indescribable." He brought 



