a favorite occupation, and his pupils still revere his memory with filial tenderness, many of them with genuine enthusiasm.

But no consideration could induce him to pause when he thought there was some truth to be defended, and this trait of character, so admirable in itself, destroyed the effect of more amiable qualities and constituted the torment of his life; because he carried it to exaggeration, and because he forgot that reasoning is the least of the means which must be used to make men adopt opinions which conflict with their habits of thought or temporary interests.

The insults heaped upon him, and the fear of again compromising the lives and fortunes of his friends, at last made a sojourn in his own country intolerable. In his new engagements at Hackney, industry and patience might repair, as they had already in part repaired, the disasters of Birmingham; but this consideration was not sufficient to detain him; and as coming to France during the war would have given countenance to the charges of his enemies, he could see no chance of repose except in the United States of America. Yet was it some time before he found it even there; English prejudices followed him beyond the seas, and not until the accession of Jefferson to the Presidency was he free from the apprehension of being obliged to quit that asylum.

The dedication of his Ecclesiastical History to that great magistrate, in acknowledgment of the tranquillity restored to him, and the reply of Jefferson, afford a noble specimen of the relations which may subsist between men of letters and men in place without humiliation to either.

Priestley proposed to consecrate the rest of his life to the work just mentioned, in which he intended to comprise the development and proofs of all his theological opinions; but he was arrested at the fourth volume by a fatal accident. His food, by some unknown means, proved one day to have been poisoned; his whole family was placed in jeopardy, and his own health languished from that time forward. A gradual decay terminated his life after three years of suffering. He died at Northumberland, in Pennsylvania, February 6, 1804.

His last moments were marked by the effusions of the same piety which had animated him through life, and which, from not being well regulated, had occasioned all its errors. He caused the Gospels to be read to him, and thanked God for having granted him a useful life and peaceful death. Among his chief blessings he ranked that of having personally known all his celebrated cotemporaries. "I am going to sleep like you," he said to his grandchildren, who were brought to his bedside; "but we shall all awake together," he added, looking towards the attendants, "and I trust to everlasting happiness." These were his latest words, and they bear witness to the belief in which he died.

Such was the end of a man whom his enemies accused of wishing to subvert all religion and morals; but whose chief fault was to have misconceived his vocation, and to have attached too much importance

The statement made here, as well as in some other works, of the poisoning which occasioned the decline and death of Dr. Priestley rests on little or no authority.-Translator.

to his private sentiments in matters where the most important of all sentiments must be the love of peace.

[NOTE.-We are informed by Lord Brougham that, on settling at Warrington, "Priestley married the daughter of Mr. Wilkinson, a respectable iron master in Wales. She was an amiable woman and endowed with great strength of mind, which was destined afterwards to be severely tried." By her he had three sons and one daughter, of whom the youngest son, Henry, the peculiar companion of his father's agricultural labors at his new home, in Pennsylvania, died at the age of eighteen, in 1795. The mother died ten months later. "These blows," says Lord B., "though he felt their weight, did not at all crush him; his resignation was exemplary, and his steady, enthusiastic faith in revelation gave him a certain hope of meeting, before many years should elapse, with those whom he had lost. It was, indeed, quite evident that religion was as much an active principle in him as in any one who ever lived. Not only is it always uppermost in his thoughts, but he even regards temporal concerns of a public nature always in connexion with the Divine superintendence, and even with the prophecies of Scripture. His letters are full of references to those prophecies as bearing on passing events, and he plainly says that, since his removal to America, he should care little for European events but for their connexion with the Old Testament. He also looked for an actual and material second coming of Christ upon earth."

The descendants of Dr. Priestley appear, from an account received through the courtesy of a grandson, Joseph R. Priestley, to be widely dispersed. Not only do several of them remain in his native country, at London and Birmingham, but others are to be found at Northumberland, Pennsylvania, where he settled in this country; at New Orleans; at Atlanta, in Georgia; and even at Melbourne, in Australia. He was buried at Northumberland, and the following is the inscription on his tomb :

To

The memory of the Reverend

DR. JOSEPH PRIESTLEY,

Who departed this life on the 6 Feb., 1804,

Anno ætatis LXXI.

"Return unto my rest, oh my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee: I will lay me down in peace and sleep till I awake in the morning of the resurrection.”]

INSTRUCTIONS IN REFERENCE TO COLLECTING NESTS AND EGGS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

The Smithsonian Institution is desirous of collecting as full a series as possible of the nests and eggs of birds of North America, with the view not merely of exhibition in its museum, but to furnish materials for a work on North American Oology, in preparation by Dr. Brewer, of Boston, and to be published in successive parts by the Institution.

This memoir is intended to give an account of the geographical distribution of North American birds, as well as of their habits and peculiarities during the breeding season, and to be accompanied as far as possible by accurate figures of the principal varieties of the egg of each species, based upon photographic drawings. Of this work, the first part, embracing the Raptores (vultures, hawks, and owls,) and Fissirostres, (swallows, swifts, and goatsuckers,) is nearly ready for publication, and will be issued during the year 1859.

The object contemplated by the institution is not merely to procure specimens of eggs not previously in its possession, but also to obtain positive evidence as to the limits within which each species rears its young. For this reason it respectfully invites donations from all parts of the country of as many kinds of nests and eggs as can be procured, with the exception of a few of the very commonest species hereafter to be mentioned; and requests that special effort be made to procure a full series for each locality. As duplicate eggs of all kinds, and in any number, can be readily used in the exchanges of the Institution, and in supplying other cabinets, no fear need be entertained of sending more than enough for the purposes in view.

The eggs, of which a single set only need be collected for the present, are chiefly those of the eastern blue bird, (Sialia sialis,) the robin, (Turdus migratorius,) the cat-bird, (Mimus carolinensis,) the red-winged black bird, (Agelaius phoeniceus,) and the crow black bird, (Quiscalus versicolor.) Those to which particular attention should be paid as groups, are the hawks, owls, woodpeckers, small waders, ducks, &c., of all portions of the country; but, as stated, all kinds of eggs, and particularly those from the regions west of the Mississippi, and from the northern parts of America, are desired. A subjoined list embraces the specimens more particularly wanting to the collection of the Institution; those having an asterisk prefixed being, with rare exceptions, entirely unknown to science. The numbers in the list refer to a printed catalogue of North American birds, published by the Institution, which will be sent to any one who proposes to collect eggs for its museum.

In this catalogue about 720 species are enumerated as now known, while of these the eggs of more than five hundred are marked as desiderata, more than three hundred, or nearly one-half, being unknown in American collections. Among easily identified species most wanted are the California vulture (Cathartes californianus ;) the swallow-tailed hawk, (Nauclerus furcatus,) and the black-shouldered hawk, (Elanus leucurus) of the south; the burrowing owl of the plains, (Athene hypugaea,) the ivory-billed woodpecker, (Picus principalis,) the western hairy woodpecker, (Picus harrisii,) the red cockaded woodpecker of the south, (Picus borealis,) the red-bellied woodpecker, (Centurus carolinus,) the red-shafted woodpecker or flicker of the west, (Colaptes mexicanus,) the Oregon robin or varied thrush, (Turdus naevius,) the California blue bird, (Sialia mexicana,) the Rocky mountain blue bird, (S. arctica,) the western nuthatch, (Sitta,) the fish-crow of Puget Sound, (Corvus caurinus,) all the jays of the Rocky mountain region; the Canada jay, (Perisoreus canadensis,) the band-tailed pigeon, (Columba fasciata,) the wild turkey of New Mexico, (Meleagris mexicana,) all the quails or partridges of western Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona; the whooping or white prairie crane, (Grus americana,) the glossy ibis, (Ibis ordii;) most of the snipes, sandpipers, curlews, and other small waders; the two species of swans, (Cygnus,) most of the geese and ducks; the booby gannet of Florida, (Sula fiber,) the wild pigeon, and many other species.

The following details will be found to contain all the instructions necessary to the preparation and preservation of oological collections:

INSTRUCTIONS FOR COLLECTING AND PRESERVING.

The nests of birds are to be sought for in all localities and in different months of the year, according to the latitude, May and June being generally the most productive. Many of the rapacious birds, however, begin to lay much earlier in the middle States, even in February and March.

When a nest containing eggs, or one newly constructed, is discovered, it should not be disturbed, if possible, before the parents have been observed hovering around or near, and thus identified. If the species cannot be otherwise positively determined, a parent bird should be secured, and either the whole skin be prepared, or a portion-as the head or wing, and preserved for identification. The whole bird may be thrown into alcohol, and thus easily kept.

The services of boys and other persons on farms, plantations, &c., may be called to great advantage into requisition in collecting eggs. Whenever they have found a nest, however, it should not be disturbed before information is communicated to and the spot visited by some one competent to determine the species, unless the parents can be taken with the nest. No pains should be considered too great to secure the certain identification of each set of eggs. If, however, this identification should be impossible, the eggs should still be preserved, as the species can usually be approximated to, if not absolutely determined, by an expert oologist.

Sometimes by removing all the eggs in a nest, except one or two, without handling those left, quite a large number can be obtained from one pair of birds; generally, however, the nest will be found abandoned on a second visit.

The nests may not always be removable, and in such cases, full mention of their position, character, &c., should be carefully made. Nests constructed in bushes or on trees usually need but slight precautions for their preservation intact. Those on the ground often require to be secured against falling to pieces by a little judicious tying together, or even by a few coarse stitches with a thread and needle. A little cotton packed in the nest above the eggs will generally keep the latter whole until reaching home, unless subjected to a violent shock. It will be safer, however, to enclose each one in an envelope of cotton.

It is absolutely necessary, in all cases, to empty every egg of its contents, in order to preserve the shell for cabinet purposes; and this should be done at the earliest moment possible. It is accomplished in various ways: the simplest, when the egg does not contain a young bird, being to prick a small aperture at each end (or better, perhaps, on opposite sides) with a sharp needle, (a three-cornered one answers best,) one rather the larger, through which the contents are blown by the application of the mouth at the other. Delicate eggs, however, when fresh, can be best emptied by suction, a small quantity at a time of the contents being drawn into the mouth, and then discharged.

Should there be an embryo in the egg, or should the contents have become thickened by long standing, it will be necessary to make a larger aperture in the side by pricking out a circular piece of shell carefully with the needle. A smaller hole may then be made opposite to this, at which to apply the mouth in blowing, or the embryo may be picked out through a single large hole. It will be of much interest to preserve all embryos in alcohol for further investigation.

European collectors usually make two small apertures close to each other on one side, instead of on opposite sides. The discharge of the contents of the egg is facilitated by the use of a small conical blow-pipe or tube, the smaller end so fine as to enter the smaller aperture. A stream of water injected by the mouth through the tube into the aperture will be found an expeditious method of emptying the egg, but it must be conducted very carefully. When a large hole is made, the tube may be directed through it to the opposite side of the egg, and a current of water forced in this will soon discharge the contents. When practicable, the white membrane, the edge of which usually protrudes from the opening after the liquids are forced out, should be seized with a pair of forceps and pulled out, as, if left, it may discolor the egg, and will always attract insects. If not too small, the egg should then be partly filled with water through the tube, or by laying one hole against a saucer of water and sucking through the other, and carefully rinsed out. After the water is again blown out, the egg may be allowed to dry by placing the larger hole downwards on blotting or absorbent paper or cloth. When dry, the eggs should be replaced in the nest, or laid carefully away, care being taken to add