Recently published Ornithological Works. 199 
47. Newton’s Memoir of the late John Scales. 
[Memoir of the late John Scales. By Alfred Newton, M.A., F.R.S. 
Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc. vol. iv. p. 81.] 
Ornithologists, especially those of Norfolk, are much 
indebted to Professor Newton for this interesting memoir of 
a naturalist who was of an East-Anglian family, although 
actually born in Yorkshire. The early life of John Scales 
was decidedly eventful; for, strange as it may appear, a man 
with whom some of our readers were well acquainted was 
captured as a lad by a French cruiser on a voyage from 
Hull to London, and detained in France until ransomed by 
his father! In 1812 his assistance was required in the 
management of the large farm and warren of Beachamwell; 
and thenceforth his name became associated with Nor¬ 
folk, especially, as readers of Stevensoxds f Birds of Norfolk 5 
will remember, as regards the Great Bustard. He made 
several excursions to the continent, however, on one of 
which he obtained the richly marked Great Auk*s egg which 
was the gem of his oological collection; he also visited 
Switzerland, and Valkenswaard, the head-quarters of 
falconry, in Hutch Brabant. Unfortunately his collec¬ 
tions, papers, and correspondence were destroyed by a fire 
more than twenty years ago; and as Scales seldom com¬ 
municated the results of his researches to any of the maga¬ 
zines of natural history, there is every reason to be thankful 
to Professor Newton for the fragmentary remains which have 
been preserved. The longest and most interesting letters 
are those addressed to the writer of the Memoir, princi¬ 
pally about the Great Bustard ; but there are many notes 
on other species. For instance, writing in May 1856, Scales 
says that he never knew of the Woodlark breeding in Nor¬ 
folk, nor did he ever see one in his part of the county, and 
he was inclined to think that it was a new comer; in which 
he agreed with Professor Newton, whose subsequent ex¬ 
perience has been that, although local, the species is not 
uncommon, and breeds annually in some parts of the above 
county and of Suffolk. Scales left Norfolk in 1842, and in 
