Br D. EMBLETON, M.D. I 1 



Oatlands for the Kingfishers, with a suitable place that he knew 

 would be appreciated, and which at the proper time of year they 

 would and did occupy. He knew at once every nest and egg 

 of the indigenous British birds that came under his inspection. 

 Desirous on one occasion of giving a friend an idea of John's 

 acquaintance with the plumage of birds, I said that if he would 

 take any dead bird and pluck off the whole of the feathers, put 

 them in a bag, shake them up, and afterwards throw them out 

 carelessly on a table, that John could and would, if necessary, 

 place each feather in its proper place on the body of the bird. 

 I mentioned this some time after to John, who said, in a few 

 minutes, "Well, I believe I could do it;" and there was no 

 room for doubt. He was well provided with a knowledge also 

 of the skeleton and of the internal anatomy of birds. 



He often inveighed strongly against ornithologists and other 

 scientific men who were fond of signalizing themselves by multi- 

 plying species and giving new names to things which in his 

 better judgment were only varieties of a common type, differing 

 in some trivial particular or other according to age, sex, season, 

 or climate, and which called for no change of name whatever. 

 As may be expected he bitterly complained of the indiscriminate 

 slaughter of rare birds and useful ones for the paltry satisfaction 

 accruing from the possession of a badly stuffed bird, whether on 

 or off the bonnet or hat of a lady. 



Before and after 1844, when Joshua Alder and Albany Han- 

 cock were busy with their studies of MoUusks and their shells, 

 noting their minute external characteristics, John was occupied 

 with skins and eggs, laying foundations for classification, they 

 all three, though unequally, began to see that external charac- 

 ters alone were not enough to settle moot-points or decide on 

 classification, but that internal structure should be with equal 

 care investigated. 



At that time I was Lecturer on Human Anatomy and Physi- 

 ology in the IN'ewcastle College of Medicine, and being more or 

 less intimate with these gentlemen, and often in their company, 

 and at the Wednesday evening meetings, I have reason to believe 

 that I had something to do with turning their attention more 



