411 
X. 
Dear Sir 
I have very much to regret that the delay in the 
arrival of your letter, which, having been sent by one of our 
colliers, reached me only a few days ago, has put it out of my 
power to do what I had wished & intended. My friend, Lev. G. 
W. Steward,* the proprietor of the Anas Stelleri, has just given it, 
together with the whole of his collection, to the Norwich Museum, 
so that it is no longer in my power to borrow the bird to have a 
drawing made of it; nor do 1 know any person at Norwich who 
could do it for me. As, however, the Museum already has a 
drawing made by one of my daughters, I have no doubt they would 
lend it to you, if such a loan w d answer your purpose. And you 
will oblige me by replying to this question, so that I may know 
your wishes by next Wednesday, when I must go to Norwich to 
attend the Museum Committee, as their President. Together with 
the Western Duck, I am told that Mr. Steward gave the Museum a 
specimen of the Caspian Tern shot near ust; A I will inquire if a 
draw* of it can be got. I am told also that the Little Egret has 
been shot by Yarmouth as well as at Wisbech, + & that two 
specimens of the Eared Grebe were taken this spring on Kollesby 
Broad about 7 miles from us. Both the Grebe & Egret are said to 
be in the hands of friends of mine hard by, in which case I shall 
have no difficulty in getting you drawings. I would have ascer- 
tained this point, but for the necessity of writing at once, lest 
I sh d not hear from you by Wednesday. 
The two specimens of Ardea comata, taken with us, are both 
males : one of them is gone to London to be engraved : the other 
is not at this moment accessible, being in the house of a gentleman 
* This gentleman, the late highly-esteemed rector of Caister,near Yarmouth, 
died on 51st May, 1S7S. The collection of birds he presented to the Norfolk 
and Norwich MuSeum, as stated in the text, contained about one hundred 
and twenty specimens. 
f No doubt that noticed by Messrs. Paget (Nat. Hist, of Yarm. p. 12). 
7 There seems to be no other contemporary notice of either of these 
specimens, but the Yarmouth one was most likely that said by Mr. Stevenson 
( It. Nor/, ii. p. 150) to have been in Mr. Steven Miller’s collection. 
