UY I). EMBLETON, M.D. 13 



day, about two months before he was confined to bed, he showed 

 me the skin of a large bird, which many years before had been 

 stuffed, in the lowest meaning of the term. It was bulging out 

 here, hollow there, and, in short, a deformity; had no expression 

 in its lack-lustre eye, and its legs were knockkneed and bandy. 

 " That wont do ! " he exclaimed; " I must do that over again, 

 and put some life into it! " In the course of a few days the 

 inert mass was changed, and looked like a living active bird, 

 full of expression. Would that some one would invent a term 

 better than " stuffing !^^ Taxidermy has never been naturalized 

 among us, and perhaps never will be. Preparation, arrange- 

 ment, and so on, are inadequate terms for the art of setting-up 

 of birds in their natural shape. 



In 1868 John Hancock elaborated a plan for the planting 

 and beautifying of the Town Moor and Leazes, the advocacy of 

 which before the Town Council was entrusted to the late Alder- 

 man "William Lockey Harle. The plan, however, was rejected 

 by that body ; but Mr. Hancock was thanked for his gratuitous 

 preparation of the plans. These are now in the possession of 

 the Corporation of the City. 



In 1874, in Yol. YI. of the Natural History Transactions of 

 ]S"orthumberland and Durham, appeared his "Catalogue of the 

 Birds of ^Northumberland and Durham, with fourteen photo- 

 graphic Copper Plates from Drawings by the Author." The 

 Catalogue was reviewed at length, and favourably, in The Field 

 of April 17th, 1875. 



The following extracts from Professor Newton's Eeview of 

 the same work, in Nature, Yol. XI., p. 281^ have been kindly 

 made for me by Mr. Jos. Wright, of the Museum, and are full 

 of interest, and place Mr. Hancock's labours in ornithology in a 

 proper light. 



Extracts from Review of ^^ Birds of Nor thumb erland and Durham,''^ 

 ly Professor Newton. — '■'■Nature,^'' Vol. XI., p. 281. 



"Mr. John Hancock has long been known to some who, 

 though comparatively few in number, are perhaps best able to 

 form an opinion, as one of the closest and most careful observers 



