OBITUAKV. 279 



Wc will not venture to curtail it in any of its interesting particulars:— 



"Mr. Strickland was in the prime of life— at that age when the promise of }-outh is fast 

 realizing itself. He Was born at Righton, in the East Eiding of Yorkshire, on the 2ud. of 

 March, 1811. His father, Mr. Henry E. Strickland, of Apperley, in Gloucestershire, was a son 

 of the late Sir George Strickland, Bart , of Boynton, in Yorkshire. He was a grandson on 

 liis mother's side of the celebrated Dr. Edmund Cartwright, whose name is so indissolubly 

 connected with the manufacturing greatness of England on account of his invention of the 

 Power-loom. 



Mr. Strickland's boyhood was spent under his father's roof; where he was under the private 

 tutelage successively of the three brothers Monkhouse, one of whom is now a Fellow of Queen's 

 College, Oxford, From his father's house he was transferred to the late Dr. Arnold, who, 

 prior to his appointment at Rugby, took private pupils at Laleham, near Staines. He finished 

 his education at Oriel College, Oxford. 



Although distinguished for his classical knowledge, Mr. Strickland had early acquired a taste 

 for natural history pursuits; and after the completion of his studies at College he resided with 

 his family at Craeourt House, near Ev(;sham, Worcestershire, whei-e he studied minutely the 

 geology of the Cotswolds and the Great Valley of the Severn. Some of his earliest published 

 papers were on Geology; but his first effort as an author indicated a taste for the pursuits 

 of his maternal grandfather. It appeared in the "Mechanics' Magazine" for 1825, and was 

 on the construction of a new wind gauge. 



In 183.5, Mr. Strickland travelled in Asia Minor, in company with Mr. "W. J. Hamilton, 

 M. P., who was then Secretary to the Geological Society. An account of this journey was 

 published, in two volumes octavo, by Mr. Hamilton, in 1842, under the title "Researches in 

 Asia Minor, Pontus, and Armenia." This tour resulted also in the publication of several 

 interesting papers on the geology of the districts visited, both by Mr. Strickland himself, and 

 conjointly with Mr. Hamilton. The principal papers published by Mr. Strickland singly, 

 were— "On the Geology of the Thi-acian Bosphorus," "On the Geology of the Neighbourhood 

 of Smyrna," and "On the Geology of the Island of Zante." He early devoted his attention 

 to the study of birds; and during this journey he gave proof of his ornithological knowledge 

 by adding to the list of birds inhabiting Europe the Salicaria Olivetorum. He subsequently 

 devoted a large share of his attention to the study of birds; as his papers in the "Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History," and in Sir William Jardine's "Contributions to Ornithology" 

 amply testify. His principal work, however, on this subject, and the one which will give 

 him a place amongst the classical writers on the ornithology of this country, is devoted to 

 the history of the Dodo. This work was publi-shed in 1848, with the title "The Dodo and its 

 Kindred; or, the History and Affinities of the Dodo, Solitaire, and other Extinct Birds." It was 

 handsomely illustrated ; and was an example of how the difficult subject of the affinities of extinct 

 animals should be dealt with. Mr. Strickland was aided in the osteological portion by Dr. Melville. 

 Since the appearance of this work, he has twice published supplementary notices regarding 

 the Dodo and its kindred, in the "Annals and Magazine of Natural History." One of Mr. 

 Strickland's last contributions to science was on the subject of ornithology, when, in the Section 

 of Natural History, the day before his death, he gave an account of the Partridge ( Tetrao- 

 gallusj of the great Water-Shed of India, recently illustrated in Mr. Gould's "Birds of Asia." 



Although, as a zoologist, ornithology was his strong point, Mr. Strickland had an extensive 

 knowledge of the various classes of organized beings. Thus, several of his papers wore devoted 

 to accounts of the MoUusca, both rec(;nt and fossil, in various districts. One of his papers at 

 the last meeting of the British Association at Hull was "On the Peculiarities of a Form of 

 Sponge, {llnlichondria saberea.") 



Mr. Strickland paid a large share of attention to the terminology of Natural History, and 

 was the reporter of a committee appointed by the British Association to consider of the rules 

 by which the nomenclature of zoology might be established on a uniform and permanent basis. 

 These rules were principally drawn up by him; and they have since their publicatiin been 

 very generally acted on, and have contributed greatly to simplify Natural History nomenclature. 

 The general principles of classification could hardly fail to interest a mind so discursive as 

 his, and accordingly, we find him at various times publishing on this subject. In an early 

 number of the "Annals and Magazine of Natural History" he inserted a paper "On the true 

 Method of discovering the Natural System in Zoology and Botany," in which he displayed 



