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ON AN UNPUBLISHED MS. OF WILLIAM MARKWICK 



ON THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



By the Editor. 



Every reader of White's 'Selborne' is familiar with the 

 name of William Markwick, and every ornithologist is probably 

 aware that, in addition to his * Naturalist's Calendar,' and his 

 remarks appended to White's " Observations on various parts of 

 Nature," which appear in most editions of the * Natural History 

 of Selborne/ he also published in the fourth volume of the 

 Linnean Society's * Transactions,' 1798, a paper entitled ' Aves 

 Sussexienses ; or, a Catalogue of Birds found in the County of 

 Sussex, with Remarks.' 



But few people, probably, at the present day are aware that 

 at his death in 1813 (the date of the second quarto edition of 

 White's 'Selborne'), Markwick left behind him a volume of 

 MS. Notes supplementary to those in his printed Catalogue ; 

 that this volume has been carefully preserved; and that the 

 nature of its contents has not hitherto been made public. Under 

 these circumstances (the volume now lying before me), I believe 

 that some account of it may be acceptable. 



But first it will be well to refer to Markwick's connection 

 with the Linnean Society, to whose Library he presented the 

 MS. in question, as the date of it is of importance in relation to 

 his printed Catalogue. William Markwick, of Catsfield, near 

 Battle, in the county of Sussex, was elected a Fellow of the 

 Linnean Society on the 15th May, 1792, and died in 1813. 

 According to Edward Turner Bennett (ed. White's 'Selborne* 

 in a Preface to 'The Naturalist's Calendar,' p. 407), Markwick 

 changed his name to Eversfield. It is not stated at what date 

 this change was made, nor is there any record of it in the 

 register of the Linnean Society, to whose Fellows he was 

 apparently always known as Markwick. This point is not 

 material to the present enquiry ; but it may be observed that all 

 the papers communicated by him to the Society between 1789 

 and 1807 are entered as having been sent by William Mark- 

 wick, and the name of Eversfield is nowhere to be found in the 

 Society's archives. 



