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Obituary Notice of Mr George Shield. 



When recently discussing with our learned Secretary tlie pro- 

 priety of allowing a niche in the Obituary Notices of the Berwick- 

 shire Naturalists' Club for persons, who, though not members, 

 had directly or indirectly, from their scientific acquirements, 

 furnished information to forward our inquiries, I was well 

 pleased to have the acquiescence of one of our ablest members, 

 who accompanied us. Such was, likewise, the view taken by 

 our secretary, from whom I lately had a request to furnish a 

 short biographical notice of the late George Shield of Wooler, 

 long known as an earnest prosecutor of scientific research. I am 

 persuaded that it cannot but be pleasing to our members to 

 preserve from oblivion the names of men, who, though unob- 

 trusive and retiring, had possessed and exercised that faculty for 

 investigation, so essential to the study of nature. 



George Shield was born in Tweedmouth, about the year 1804 ; 

 and his daughter writes, that, from his earliest years, he had 

 been a close student of Natural History. Like many of the 

 Berwick youths at that time, he found his way to London, and 

 obtained employment in the establishment of a tailor. After a 

 few years spent in the metropolis his health seems to have failed, 

 and at 30 years of age we find him married and settled in the 

 country town of Wooler. Though for a few subsequent years 

 engaged in his trade, or in instructing the young men apprenticed 

 to him, he found leisure for an occasional ramble on the shores 

 of the Fame Islands, St. Abb's Head, or among the upland valleys 

 of the Cheviot HiUs. 



At that time Mr Selby, of Twizel, was engaged in preparing 

 his work on British Ornithology, and the subject of our memoir 

 had occasional interviews with that distinguished naturalist, from 

 whom he must have acquired that impulse, which induced him, 

 at the age of 40, to retire from his profession and devote his time 

 nearly exclusively to science. Being in the prime of life he was 

 able to undertake long walks and excursions, during which he 

 captured many rare specimens, which he carefully stuffed or etched 

 upon steel. This art he acquired by perseverance, having had 

 no preliminary instruction, even in sketching, which will astonish 

 those who have seen his life-like engraving of the " Eough-legged 

 Buzzard." In this way he gradually elaborated plates, which 



