Alfred Charles Smith — In Memoriam. 



201 



was known to the public at large. He was, indeed, an admirable 

 example of a type of country clergyman which from one cause or 

 another, was more frequent in the last generation than it is now, 

 and bids fair to become rarer still as time goes on, to the very real 

 loss, it can hardly be doubted, both of the Church and the country 

 at large. He was born a naturalist, and the circumstances of his 

 life made him an archaeologist too. You cannot read his books of 

 travel without seeing that, whether on the banks of the Tagus or 

 the Nile, his affections are really with the birds — and it was as an 

 ornithologist, as the recognised authority, indeed, in the north of 

 the county — for in the south Mr. Morres shared his office — on all 

 matters connected with bird life, that he was most widely known. 

 If a rare bird was seen — or shot — (the two things are unhappily 

 generally synonymous) — the first thought of the person who saw 

 it or killed it was to write to Mr. Smith, and the result of this 

 large correspondence, and of the necessarily unique knowledge 

 which it gave him, was embodied first of all in the papers on the 

 " Ornithology of "Wilts," which he contributed to the first twelve 

 volumes of the Magazine, and afterwards expanded and published 

 separately in his " Birds of Wiltshire," in 1887. Himself a member 

 of the " British Ornithologists' Union," he was in constant corres- 

 pondence with many of the leading ornithologists of the day, among 

 them, in earlier years, with Charles Waterton, of Walton Hall, 

 whose unique system of stuffing, or rather setting up, birds he 

 confesses he tried in vain to practice — and to the end of his life 

 with his " old and valued friend," Professor Alfred Newton, to 

 whom the " Birds of Wiltshire " is dedicated. At Yatesbury first, 

 and afterwards at Old Park, the walls of the dining-room and the 

 hall were lined with a valuable collection of birds, the greater 

 number of which were the spoils of his own travels abroad, for in 

 Egypt and Syria, in Spain and Portugal and Norway, the gun and 

 the skinning-knife were his inseparable companions. But, keen 

 collector as he was, he always set his face against the extermination 

 of rare species in England on the plea of enriching a collector's 

 treasure. He was satisfied to have such specios represented in his 

 collection by specimens from countries where they are common — 



YOfc. XXX.— NO. XCI, 0 



