26
THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
for many years, with satisfaction both to patients and governors of
the institution. He died on September 5, 1869, having retired
from practice for several years. In many respects he was a most
remarkable man. His knowledge of Natural History was very
extensive, and if it could be said that he excelled in any branch
especially, his life-long habit of observation and fondness for birds
would have placed him in the first rank of ornithologists, had he
made public the vast store of facts he had accumulated, but unfor-
tunately he never published anything. This may have been due
to his retiring disposition, but one thing he did in perfection : his
stuffed birds were marvellously painstaking and truthful copies of
nature. He was brimful of facts, but these had always to be drawn
out of him by persistent questioning. He was by far the best natu-
ralist it was ever my lot to meet. Dr. Bell made public in the
Zoologist, I think, some of his observations on the hybernation of
caterpillars, especially on that of the White Admiral Butterfly. He
was also very successful in his treatment of birds in captivity, and
appeared to have no difficulty in keeping healthily in confinement
some of the most troublesome of the warblers ; his knowledge of
their habits and his patience enabling him to succeed where others
failed.
" Although he never published anything, he was always pleased to
assist anyone requiring help, and many a young naturalist had to
thank him for having first led him into correct habits of observation.
He was an excellent botanist and an enthusiastic horticulturist and
florist. His experiments in the propagation of fruits and vegetables
were of great public importance, inasmuch as he raised varieties of peas,
which have enabled us to have Marrow-fat peas over a month sooner
than it was possible before he began his experiments. The same
may be said of the varieties of rhubarb he raised. The very earliest
and best kind grown, his Early Red, is still unsurpassed for flavour
and early fitness for the table. As a florist also, he was most success-
ful. Lovers of the pelargonium have to thank him for many valuable
varieties, he having raised the first white one known. In short, there
was nothing he touched which he did not excel in, and it was a
matter of general regret amongst his friends that he could not be
induced to put to paper anything out of his great accumulation of
facts and observations." *
He was evidently an adept at netting birds, and in his letters to
Heysham (16) more than once speaks of his " spider nets." In one,
he says :—
* For the foregoing notice of Dr. Maclean, I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Laver.