MEMOIR OF THE LATE CECIL SMITH. 431 



In addition to this list may be noticed Mr. Smith's occasional 

 communications to ■ The Field ' and to ' Science Gossip,' though 

 some of these were merely duplicates or reprints from ' The 

 Zoologist.' His remarks on the occurrence of the Marsh 

 Warbler, Acrocephalus palustris, as a summer visitor to Somer- 

 setshire (Zool. 1875, p. 4713), and his observations on the change 

 of plumage in certain water-fowl and sea-gulls kept by him in a 

 state of complete freedom, though pinioned, on a pool before his 

 house, deserve to be especially referred to (Zool. 1881, p. 446). 



Having visited him in his Somersetshire home, and enjoyed 

 many a pleasant day's shooting with him amongst the turnips 

 and stubble-fields of Bishop's Lydeard, and the attractive sand- 

 hills of Braunton Burrows, in North Devon, we can testify to his 

 keen powers of observation, as well as to his knowledge and 

 experience as a sportsman. His native Red-deer were a special 

 source of delight to him, not only during the hunting season, 

 when he frequently followed the celebrated Devon and Somerset 

 pack, but at other times of the year, when he quietly sought 

 them out for the purpose of observing, while unobserved, their 

 actions in their wild haunts. We look back with pleasure, not 

 unmingled with regret, to our rides with him on horseback over 

 the Quantocks for the purpose of getting near a stag or hind, 

 and admiring it, in all its beauty of unrestrained freedom, amid 

 surroundings eminently suited to its wild nature. 



It is sad to think that these days can never return, and that 

 another good friend and true has passed away. 



Mr. Cecil Smith enjoyed the respect of all who knew him in 

 his own neighbourhood, where for many years he had been a 

 magistrate, and was well known (even to many perhaps who 

 had never met him) as an enthusiastic member of the British 

 Ornithologists' Union, and a Fellow of the Zoological Society. 



His wife predeceased him by some years, but he leaves 

 several daughters, who shared in an unusual degree their father's 

 tastes and pursuits, and a son, Cecil, who succeeds to the paternal 

 acres in Somersetshire. 



