14 MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF JOHX HANCOCK:, 



of birds and bird-life in tbis country. The circle of his admirers 

 would have been indefinitely wider but for the reticence which 

 his natural modesty has for years made him keep. "While others 

 without a tithe of his knowledge have ostentatiously come 

 forward as teachers so as to acquire a character as ' celebrated 

 ornithologists ' out of all proportion to their ability, he has been 

 content to look on, seldom obtruding on the public any of the 

 results of his experience, and then perhaps only at the earnest 

 solicitation of some particular friend. Yet this ornithological 

 oracle of the North of England has never been hard to consult, 

 and the number of those who, through information privately 

 derived from him, have in a manner reaped the fruit of his 

 continual observation — not always, we fear, with due acknow- 

 ledgement on their part — is not inconsiderable. It is, therefore, 

 with great pleasure that we find he has at last summoned courage 

 to speak for himself. As a consequence of his diffidence a good 

 deal of what he has to tell us has oozed out through other 

 channels, but there is more than sufficient novelty in the 200 

 and odd pages of this Catalogue amply to repay their study, 

 and even when facts ascertained by him have been announced 

 before, it is most satisfactory to have the record of them here 

 stamped by his personal authority. It will be news, we take it, 

 to most people to learn that Mr. Hancock was the first who 

 recognised Bewick's Swan as a distinct species ; and we cannot 

 but wonder that forty-five years and more have been allowed to 

 elapse before this fact was made publicly known. Yet Mr. 

 Hancock shews not the least trace of annoyance at the way in 

 which his claims have been overlooked — his conduct in this 

 respect being in exemplary contrast to the selfish and utterly 

 unphilosophical squabbling as to ' priority ' which so often dis- 

 graces the votaries of all sciences. To him it is enough that a 

 discovery was made ; if important, so much the better ; but, so 

 long as knowledge has been extended, it matters nothing by 

 whose means the end was attained. If we have not here a 

 practical illustration of true scientific spirit, it will be difficult 

 to meet with it anywhere." 



In speaking of the question of the plumage of the Greenland 



