'JG MKMOIR OR THE LATE JOHN SCALES. 
To^v^lselKl, near Skibbereen, in the south-west of Ireland, belonging 
to an absentee proprietor, and consisting of about 30,000 acres of 
land, a great part of which required reclaiming, draining, and 
planting. Here Scales continued nearly two years, when in 
consequence of the continued fall in the value of landed property 
in that part of the kingdom, coupled with the destruction of the 
mansion on the estate bj^ fire, the owner could no longer afford to avail 
himself of Scales’s services as agent. In 185G he undertook the 
management of the estate of Castle Hyde, near Ifermoy, on behalf of 
the mortgagees, who had advanced money upon it to the notorious 
John Sadleir, and remained there until it was sold in 18G0. It 
was during his occupancy of this management that the present 
writer, through their common friend, the late Mr. John Salmon, 
entered into correspondence with Scales, being thereto induced by 
the belief that no one then living could furnish more information 
as to the causes which led to the extermination from Norfolk of 
the Ilustard, and extracts from some of the letters written by 
Scales on this and other ornithological subjects will be found 
at the end of this memoir (Appendix C). Scales then resided 
for about two years in I'ermoy, desirous of meeting Avith 
another agency, but, though his energy was still undiminished, his 
already advanced age seems to have hindered him from obtaining 
another engagement. Throughout the whole of his residence in 
Ireland, however, whether employed or not, he was constant in his 
pursuit of natural history, and Avas the same diligent collector of 
botanical and zoological specimens that he had been in England. 
I^'pon leaving Ireland, being uncertain as to Avhere he should settle 
himself, he left the Avhole of his collections, together Avith his 
books, papers, furniture, and other household goods, in a Avarehouse 
at Cork. There they met Avith a disastrous fate, being, Avith the 
exception of a single cabinet (Avhich contained little more than 
the duplicates of his oological collection *), Avholly destroyed (as 
has been before mentioned) by an unfortunate fire ; and thus the 
labours of a life — it may be said of two lives, since the collections 
had been begun by his father — Avholly perished, a loss irreparable 
not only to the oAvner but to naturalists in general, for countless 
* Kindly placed by Mr. 11. H. Scales, after his father’s death, in my hands. 
The most valuable specimen in it Avas a Bittern’s egg marked Avith the date 
“1818,” and most likely of Norfolk origin. 
