ussher] 
BRITISH ORNITHOLOGY 
603 
When twenty-five, he married the eldest daughter of the 
Rev. John Finlay, of Corkagh House, Co. Dublin, and again 
travelled abroad for some years. On his return he devoted 
himself to public duties in his own county and became Deputy- 
Lieutenant and High Sheriff, and taking a great interest in 
Church matters was for many years a member of the General 
Synod. 
His interest in egg-collecting and ornithology dated from 
boyhood, and his tastes in this direction are said to have been 
developed by the circumstance of his wife becoming a con- 
firmed invalid in 1877. His summers were spent at Ardmore, 
on the coast of Waterford, where the cliffs and sea-birds were 
a constant source of attraction, and he became an expert 
climber and a great egg collector. Almost every part of 
Ireland was in time visited in ceaseless search for the breeding 
haunts of rare birds, and the assistance of correspondents 
was enlisted in nearly every county, so that his egg collection 
became almost unique, and was acquired some years ago by 
the National Museum in Dublin, after which he gave up egg- 
collecting, but paid even greater attention than before to 
ornithology. 
His volume on the Birds of Ireland , written in con- 
junction with another veteran ornithologist, Robert 
Warren, is the standard work on the avifauna of Ireland, 
and represents an immense amount of patient labour with 
a maximum of skill in selection and condensation of 
the enormous amount of material that must have been 
collected. 
Ussher was also greatly interested in cave exploration, 
and enjoyed working underground. He made many c * finds,” 
among which may be mentioned the remains of the Great 
Auk discovered in Co. Waterford. In appearance he is 
described (Memoir in Brit. Birds , vii. pp. 182-5) as a u fairly 
big man, almost six feet high, well set-up, with reddish hair 
and beard. He had a rugged, but good-natured face, kindly 
blue eyes, and a quiet, courteous manner.” He died, after 
a short illness, on October 12, 1913, aged seventy- two years. 
