XXIV PROLEGOMENA 



Griscom, a distinguished American chemist. This gentleman 

 visited Gough in 1818 or in 1819, and was much impressed by 

 the remarkable accomplishments of this blind genius : ' He 

 [Gough] walked with us to Kendal/ writes Griscom, 'to dine 

 with me at the house of a brother-in-law. On the way I dis- 

 covered that, in addition to the sciences I have mentioned, he is 

 an excellent ornithologist. He enumerated the different species of 

 migratory birds, he knows their respective periods of approach 

 and departure, and can easily distinguish them by the sounds 

 they utter.' l 

 T. C. Heysham. A certain confusion of persons has long existed in the minds 

 of some naturalists, who have failed to distinguish between Dr. 

 Heysham and his eldest son, Thomas Coulthard Heysham. The 

 younger Heysham was born at Carlisle on the 21st of September 

 1791. His youth and early life appear to have been uniformly 

 passed in Carlisle. He does not appear to have been educated 

 for any learned profession, but was constantly associated with 

 his father, whom he assisted in the transaction of magisterial 

 duties, as well as the management of his private affairs. Whether 

 he showed an early taste for zoological studies is unknown. 

 Like his father he was fast nearine the threshold of middle life 

 before he published any papers on natural history. At no period 

 of his career was T. C. Heysham a voluminous writer. He cer- 

 tainly printed a few summaries of his annual notes on local 

 ornithology in the scientific magazines of the day, commencing 

 in 1829 with a paper contributed to the Philosophical Magazine, 

 followed by others which appeared in the London and Edinburgh 

 Magazine, in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, and in 

 Charlesworth's Magazine, during the ' thirties,' for T. C. Heysham 

 ceased to write in public prints prior to 1840. The paper 

 which attracted more notice from the public than any other of 

 Heysham's essays, was an article on the habits of the Dotterel, 

 which will be found in the second volume of Charlesworth's 

 Magazine of Natural History (pp. 300-303). It will be obvious 

 that had the claims to distinction which this naturalist pos- 

 sessed depended in any important degree upon his writings, 

 T. C. Heysham would never have been acknowledged as a high 

 1 A Year in Europe. New York, 1824. Vol. ii. 



