Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/258

230 evolution. His recent work on 'The Primary Factors of Organic Evolution' is a case in point, and it is well to remember that to really keep abreast of the current biological thought of the day it is necessary to read and study Cope and Eimer as well as Wallace and Weismann.

We have also to record the deaths of the following zoologists: —

who died at Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.A., on February 4th, was born in Hesse Darmstadt, on April 27th, 1836, and went to America in 1852, where he undertook considerable military service. As an ornithologist he will be perhaps best remembered by his well-known 'Life Histories of North American Birds,' of which the second volume recently appeared, leaving the whole work, however, less than half completed. We learn from 'The Auk' that his immense collection of birds' eggs, gathered during his military wanderings, long since became the property of the United States National Museum, where their donor had held for some years the position of Honorary Curator of the Department of Oology.

K.C.M.G., died at Lowestoft on April 25th, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. He held several important Colonial Government appointments, and he was fortunately a member of the mission sent by the government of Mauritius to congratulate the late King of Madagascar on his accession to the throne, when, according to 'Nature,' being an ardent ornithologist, he seized the opportunity (as he did during a subsequent visit made with that express purpose) to materially increase the knowledge of the very peculiar fauna of that country, which he was almost the first English naturalist to investigate on the spot. He also largely increased our knowledge of the zoology of the Mascarene Islands, and it was mainly due to his exertions that nearly complete skeletons of the "Solitaire" of Rodriguez were recovered from the caves of that island, as described in the 'Philosophical Transactions' of the Royal Society. Sir Edward was also one of the founders of the British Ornithologists' Union.

F.Z.S., of the Ceylon Civil Service, died at Hyères on April 10th. Mr. Nevill had been an indefatigable collector during twenty seven years' service, had discovered and described many new species in zoology, and had contributed many specimens to our museums. Quoting from the 'Athenaeum,' "his collection of birds passed to the late Marquis of Tweeddale; but a large and very complete collection of certain genera of shells remains."