THE NATURALISTS OF LAKELAND XXV 



authority upon any branch of zoology. Whether he ever 

 intended to publish a work on the ornithology of Cumberland 

 is a matter of entire uncertainty. There can be no doubt that 

 he felt keenly the poverty of the Avifauna of his county, and 

 considered that it possessed far fewer features of interest than 

 such a fortunate county as Norfolk, which has yielded a perfect 

 wealth of rare British birds. Thomas Armstrong, an entomo- 

 logist and oologist, now advanced in life, was more or less 

 intimately acquainted with T. C. Heysham during the ' fifties/ 

 He has always maintained that Heysham wrote a MS. history 

 of the birds of Cumberland, and that this and other papers fell 

 into the hands of T. C. Heysham's relatives at his death. 

 Whether this surmise be correct or not, there can be no doubt 

 that Heysham prepared a work on The Land and Freshwater 

 shells of Cumberland, because there still exist the estimates of 

 the publishers to whom he applied in the spring of 1845. 

 The total cost of producing the book with coloured figures was 

 estimated by Messrs. Eeeve Brothers at £350. This Heysham 

 considered a more expensive outlay than the probable demand 

 for such a monograph could justify. It will be understood 

 from this incident that Heysham was a conchologist as well as 

 an ornithologist. He was in fact one of the most versatile 

 naturalists that Great Britain has ever possessed. A man of 

 active habits, enjoying ample leisure, inheriting also a hand- 

 some competency, he was able to furnish his library with every 

 European work of importance in all the branches of Natural 

 History. But Heysham did not rest content with the acquisi- 

 tion of a fine library. He was essentially a collector, priding 

 himself on possessing large series of rare insects. 1 Nor was he 

 one whit less eager to add specimens of rare birds and their 

 eggs to his own fine collection and those of his friends. Had 

 this been all, Heysham might well have lived in comparative 

 obscurity. He won his way to general recognition by the 

 industry which he devoted to his favourite pursuits, as well as 

 by the untiring energy with which he initiated and carried on 



1 Heysham wrote to Stephen Calverley in June 1846 : ' The truth 

 however is, that I have done little or nothing in entomology for the last 

 ten years.' 



