BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 
was very funny. An old barber who attended to Sir Henry 
Ellis, then Governor of the British Museum, undertook to in- 
troduce me to Sir Henry, who then and there introduced me to 
Dr. J. E. Gray (?) or his predecessor. 
“ I became acquainted with Dr. J. E. Gray, Mr. G. Gray, Dr. 
Mantell, Prof. Owen, the Dean of Westminster, the Bishop of 
Oxford, Sir Charles Lyell, Charles Darwin, Prof. Huxley, F. 
Fuller, Yarrell, Ogilby, Gould, Blyth, and Sir Joseph Paxton. 
These were the names of a few of those that I have worked with, 
or worked for, and most of them acknowledged my assistance. 
“ I have already described my early introduction to the 
menagerie at Exeter ’Change, and how, during my boyhood, I 
saw from time to time birds that had died in the menagerie, 
which were given to me on my expressing a desire to preserve 
their skins and feathers. I gradually became an expert in 
skinning and preparing these creatures, and in the course of 
time I succeeded in mounting, or, as it is commonly called, 
stuffing, various specimens. My fondness for this art induced 
me to commence to obtain a livelihood at it, in which I succeeded 
beyond my expectations. In the Exhibition of 1851 I was 
fortunate enough to be awarded the first prize for my specimens 
of taxidermy which I exhibited, viz. : — Eagle under glass shade, 
diver under glass shade (the property of her Majesty the 
Queen), snowy owl, Mandarin duck, Japanese teal, pair of 
Impeyan pheasants, sleeping ourang-utang, sun bittern, musk 
deer, cockatoo, foxes ; carved giraffe ; two bronze medals from 
the Zoological Society ; model of dodo ; dog and deer ; crowned 
pigeons ; leopard and wolf.” 
KESTOHATION OF THE DODO. 
The earliest record which I can find respecting the 
restoration of the Dodo by my father, is contained in 
a letter to H. E. Strickland, which I copy ; — 
“16a, Great College Street, Camden Toion, 
September 25, 1848. 
“SiE, — I beg respectfully to inform you that I have just 
completed what appears to me a perfect restoration of the 
long-lost Dodo, and am anxious that you should be the first 
person to see it. I shall feel much obliged if you will have 
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