420 
I have sent also a few observations made by Mr. Salmon," a very 
accurate observer, on birds in the vicinity of Thetford.t 
W. Yarrell Esq re - 
XVII. 
London Aug*- 16 th - 1837 . 
Mr dear Sir, 
I have delayed acknowledging the receipt of your 
packet much longer than your kind letter and valuable communi- 
cation deserved, but I have been waiting for an artist and the 
enclosed drawings of two eggs must be my excuse. The informa- 
tion contained in the two parts which you have yourself written 
out are very acceptable and I am greatly obliged. Let me know if 
you wish the MSS. to be returned, and if so, 1 will copy them 
forthwith. Mr. Salmon’s printed remarks will be useful. I be- 
* John Drew Salmon, F.L.S., a well known oologist and botanist, who 
lived for some years at Stoke Ferry and Thetford (4 years), in Norfolk ; after- 
wards at Godaiming, in Surrey, and finally in London, where he died in 1859. 
He bequeathed his cabinet of eggs to the Linnean Society, but unfortunately 
its contents were shamefully plundered before it came into the Society’s 
possession. To the Norwich Museum, of which he had long been an honor- 
ary member, he left his extensive and valuable herbarium, comprising 
two collections beautifully arranged and named, one possessing a special 
local interest, having been formed in this county. To these were added several 
important botanical works, some of which being interleaved with notes and 
references to his collections, are an important addition to the bequest. 
Shortly before his death he had also presented the Museum with some 300 
specimens of British birds’ eggs, to which his brothers, Captain J. C. and 
Richard Salmon, added a further series of duplicates (and nests), from their 
fine collection. His diaries, consisting of ornithological and botanical 
observations, made between 1825 and 1837, whilst a resident in Norfolk, 
are preserved in the Norwich Museum. From these records it appears 
that he visited Holland in the summer of 1825, but not for egg-collecting 
which pursuit he only commenced in 1828, with his brother Richard ; 
and to this end he visited the Isle of Wight in 1829, the Orkneys in 1831, 
and Lincolnshire in 1832. Of his expedition to the Orkneys, from May to 
July, he subsequently published an account in the May. of Nat. Hist. 
(v. p.p. 415-425). 
t Afterwards printed in the May. of Nat. Ilist. (ix. pp. 520—528). 
