404 Obituary Notice of Sir William Jardine, Bart. 



E. Strickland, the son-in-law of Sir William. In answer to 

 a letter on this subject from Mr. Strickland, in Dec, 1843, 

 he wrote, — " In regard to the Ray Club, it is one of those 

 things which if established with sufficient funds to publish 

 2 or 4 vols, annually, would do much good ; and it is one of 

 those things which may hang on for ten years by talking ; 

 meanwhile, if you approve of the general plan, get as many 

 subscribers as possible." Details of the establishment of 

 the Ray Society are given in the " Memoirs of H. E. 

 Strickland," p. ccxiii, to p. ccxxvii. 



Ornithology was nevertheless the study which Sir William 

 followed with untiring perseverance ; and his ornithological 

 museum at Jardine Hall, was probably unrivalled by any 

 private collection in Great Britain. Prince Bonaparte, Jer- 

 don, Blyth, Hodgson, Gosse, Kirk, Gould, contributed from 

 time to time to the collection of birds, which were accumu- 

 lated from every quarter of the globe, and of which, at the 

 time of his death, he had all but completed a detailed cata- 

 logue ; marking each variety of plumage, age, and sex, with 

 the localities where each bird was found, and the person 

 from whom the specimen was obtained. The stuffed British 

 birds, in the museum, were chiefly shot and preserved by 

 himself. Some of these are now extremely rare, and diffi- 

 cult to obtain. 



In 1848, he commenced the "Contributions to Ornith- 

 ology," which were continued until 1853, when the work 

 was given up, chiefly owing to the shock caused by the 

 death of his distinguished son-in-law, Hugh E. Strickland. 

 In 1855, he published the 1st vol. of " Ornithological Syno- 

 nyms; and in 1858, the "Memoirs of Hugh E. Strickland; 

 which, with the exception of some contributions to the 

 " New Edinburgh Philosophical Journal," were the last em- 

 anations of his pen. 



He was president, from its foundation, of the " Galloway 

 Natural History and Antiquarian Society," and a contributor 

 to the papers of its " Transactions." Indeed, he was the 

 Laird of Spedlins Castle ; that old border baronial tower of 

 the Jardines, by " the Annan water wan ;" of which Grose 

 tells the strange story of the ghost of a starved man, by 

 which it was haunted. There are few Ornithologists of 

 modern repute, who do not owe much to days passed at 

 Jardine Hall, and to lessons in ornithological research, 

 Avhich they learned at the feet of the veteran Naturalist who 



