NOTICES OF ESSEX ORNITHOLOGISTS.
33
and he was never able to leave his room again. He died at Stubbers,
on May 16th, in his sixty-seventh year.
It is exceedingly to be regretted that he seems to have left abso-
lutely no notes or papers whatever of ornithological interest. I have
been kindly permitted to examine such of his papers as seemed likely
to yield matters of interest, but they appear to contain nothing
beyond the first rough drafts of the papers which he contributed at
various times to the Field and other publications. We can only feel
deep regret that a man of such wide experience and one who had un-
doubtedly met with many rare and interesting Essex birds from time
to time, should have left so few permanent records of his obser-
vations. His son, Mr. Champion B. Russell, informs me that Col.
Russell never systematically collected, though he was a very fair
amateur stuffer, and occasionally set up specimens to illustrate some
particularly remarkable stage of plumage or other interesting fact,
while he also occasionally had rare birds stuffed.
SHEPPARD, Rev. Revett (-----?-1830 ?), of Wrabness,
seems to have been a good ornithologist, conchologist and ento-
mologist, but the information I have been able to collect about him
is extremely meagre. He was for some time at the beginning of
this century rector of Wrabness, where he made many observations.
He was joint-author with the Rev. Wm. Whitear of the " Catalogue
of Norfolk and Suffolk Birds " (9.—Trans. Linn. Soc. xv. p. 1), and
also author of a List of the Land and Fresh-water Shells of the Locality
(loc. cit). Some letters, written by one of his sons (17), and contain-
ing, amongst other things, a list of his father's observations on the
arrival of the summer migrants at Wrabness, similar to that given in
his paper above cited, have been lent me by the Rev. H. A. Mac-
pherson, who, in a letter dated March 22nd, 1888, says: "Mrs.
Sheppard, the relict of the Rev. R. Sheppard, states that, for two or
three years before her husband's death, he was prevented by ill-health
from carrying on his observations." He apparently died early in
1830.
SMOOTHY, Charles, of Old Riffhams, Danbury, is a
good naturalist and an excellent taxidermist, as shown by his fine
collection of British Birds (most of them, however, not being Essex
specimens), at present deposited in the Chelmsford Museum. He
has assisted with many notes of his observations, including a list
of the birds observed round his house.
SPALDING, Frederick, of Colchester, where he is curator
of the Museum, is a good observer, and has supplied useful informa-
D