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OBITUARY. 



HEINRICH GATKE. 



Born May 19, 1813. Died January i, 1897. 



ORNITHOLOGISTS of all lands will hear of the death of Heinrich 

 Gatke, of Heligoland, with much regret ; at the same time it is 

 a matter for congratulation that he lived long enough, with unimpaired 

 faculties, to finish his remarkable work, Die Vogehcarte Helgoland, 

 published in German at Brunswick in 1891, and an English edition 

 and translation at Edinburgh in 1895. This, the full value and 

 importance of which to students it is difficult to over-estimate, was 

 the result of more than fifty years' experience and study in the best 

 ornithological observatory on the west coast of Europe by one of the 

 most careful and reliable of observers, one, too, whose labours were 

 practically continuous day and night, for during his long life he was 

 rarely absent from the island. 



Gatke was borne in a small town of the Mark of Brandenburg, 

 and it was his desire to become a marine painter that first induced him 

 to visit Heligoland, and finally settle there. Subsequently, during 

 the time of the English occupancy, he held an official position under 

 the Governor. It was constant touch with nature when following his 

 profession which first brought him into contact with that marvellous 

 variety of bird-life, which year by year, with almost rhythmical pre- 

 cision, sweeps to and fro over the lone red rock in its grey setting of 

 sea. I first made Mr. Gatke's acquaintance in 1874, O'^ which occasion, 

 and subsequently, I saw his splendid collections of birds and moths, 

 the whole of which had been prepared and set up by himself, and 

 placed in the well-lighted studio adjoining his house on the Oberland. 

 The total number of species of birds observed on Heligoland during 

 his life was 398, a most extraordinary number for so small a locality, 

 representing, as they did, wanderers from many lands. Every yard, 

 nay, nearly every foot, of the beautiful garden near his house was 

 memorable for some rare capture or occurrence. 1 



Giitke completed the German edition of his work on May 19, 

 1890, his 77th birthday ; the English translation, revised and corrected 

 by himself, in 1895 ! ^^^^ very shortly after this he was struck down 

 by partial paralysis. He just lived to cross the threshold of 1897, 

 dying on January i, in his 84th year. 



When Giitke first commenced the study of birds, his guide and 

 text-book was the two Naumanns' great work, Naturgeschichte der 

 Vogel Deutschlands. Up to 1874 he had held little communication with 

 English ornithologists. Since that time, however, many naturalists, 

 attracted by ihe wonders of the island, went over ; one result was that 

 he was liberally supplied by Professor Newton, Mr. H. E. Dresser, 

 and others, with all our best and most recent publications on birds. 



