THE NATURALISTS OF LAKELAND XXI 



Most of the avian observations of 1796 are extremely trivial, 

 and such as a schoolboy could make ; but Dr. Heysham was 

 well aware that occasions may arise when the most trite notes 

 become useful, or even valuable. Nor did he shrink from 

 bestowing careful labour on his pursuits while working in the 

 study. Thus, in the year 1796, when Dr. Heysham was study- 

 ing the development of the Salmon, he took the trouble to 

 dissect 198 'brandlins.' He further tells us himself that the 

 printing of sheet 32 of his Catalogue 'was delayed a consider- 

 able time to give me an opportunity of examining fry the 

 present season, viz. 1797.' Dr. Lonsdale has hazarded an 

 amiable conjecture that Dr. Heysham accomplished much zoo- 

 logical work subsequently to the appearance of his Catalogue. 1 

 It is perfectly true that Heysham continued to make notes of 

 birds, e.g. of a Turnstone shot on Ulleswater in 1801. At the 

 same time I feel tolerably certain that the pressure of public 

 business, together with the multifarious duties of married life, 

 latterly imposed a barrier between Dr. Heysham and his taste 

 for natural history. 



Dr. Heysham tells us, in his Catalogue of Cumberland 

 Animals, that he then (1796-7) possessed specimens of the 

 birds included in his list, with very few exceptions. Some of 

 the skins remained in his own hands during his lifetime. The 

 Honey Buzzard, for example, shot near Carlisle in June 1783, 

 fell into the hands of T. C. Heysham upon his father's death. 

 But Dr. Heysham, at a comparatively early period, acceded to a 

 request of Dr. Law, bishop of Elphin, that he should place his 

 collection of mounted birds in the deanery at Carlisle, probably 

 in order that the specimens might thus be examined by many 

 besides the doctor's personal acquaintances. On the death of 

 Dean Milner, these specimens fell into the hands of Dr. Barnes. 

 What precisely befell the collection during its long stay at the 

 deanery is open to conjecture, but probably some specimens 

 came to grief in the interval. The Carlisle Journal of March 

 29, 1834, commenting upon the death of Dr. Heysham, took 

 occasion to make the following remark : ' The remnant [of his 

 collection of stuffed birds] is now in a room at the House of 

 1 The Life of Dr. Heysham, p. 93. 



