Five handmade notebooks on conchology in brown paper wrappers. Numbered with pencil as volumes 1 to 4 on the front of each; fifth notebook is labelled as 'rough copies'. First volume describes classes of shells, their placement in broader biological classifications, and instructions on how to collect them. Handwritten notes in black pen, accompanied by elaborate diagrams and illustrations. Also has a glossary of shell-related scientific terms at the rear. Second, third and fourth volumes contain mostly pen and pencil diagrams and illustrations, many watercolour. Fifth volume contains illustrations and rough notes in black pen and pencil. First and fourth volumes contain loose duplicate bookplate inserts that state the volumes were 'presented to the University of Queensland Library by the descendants of Albert John Hockings and James Thompson Tilbury, 1966'. Dates found within the notes, as well as an insert of a folio from a 1944 edition of the British Medical Journal, indicate the notebooks were created between 1937 and 1944.