78 Obituary Notices. [ist^T^iy 



1867. From Melbourne his battery was transferred to Colombo, 

 and he remained in Ceylon for nine years, where his family of 

 three was born. On his return voyage to England he was 

 wrecked in the Red Sea. In order to the better carry on the 

 work of his book (" The Birds of Ceylon "), he took a staff appoint- 

 ment at Aberystwith, in Cardiganshire, which he held for about 

 five years, and was next offered by the then Commander-in-Chief, 

 the Duke of Cambridge, the most coveted appointment of all 

 artillery officers — namely, inspector, or instructor, of experimental 

 gunnery. Owing to his father's failing health he refused this, 

 even when offered lengthened furlough to pay his parents a visit. 

 Col. Legge had also experience as an engineer officer, and super- 

 vised the construction of some of the Portsmouth forts. Latterly 

 he was for 11 years Commandant of the Tasmanian military forces, 

 and after the Boer War was retired on reaching the age limit. He 

 then took to pastoral pursuits. 



Colonel Legge' s hobby was natural science — forestry, physi- 

 ography, with a strong leaning towards ornithology. He was one 

 of the founders and first president of the Royal Australasian 

 Ornithologists' Union.* His magnum opus was " The Birds of 

 Ceylon," two large volumes, quarto size, illustrated with coloured 

 plates by the best artists of the day. The work is still a standard 

 one, and in our library the two handsome books are inscribed, 

 " Presented to the R.A.O.U. by its first President — ^The Author." 

 In 1887 he published a useful " Systematic List of Tasmanian 

 Birds." Col. Legge was rather a "lumper" than a "splitter." 

 In his introductory note he states : — " There has been an un- 

 necessary separation of genera in many families of Australian 

 birds. Nothing is more perplexing to the young student than 

 this, and I have, in cases where there are no differences of 

 external structure, discarded many such genera." 



At the Hobart meeting (January, 1892) of the Australasian 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, Col. Legge con- 

 tributed an important paper, " On the Geographical Distribution 

 of the Australian Lijiiicolce." The paper dealt with 46 species, 

 grouped under their respective families. He inadvertently 

 omitted the Sanderling, but included the Little Indian Ringed 

 Plover [Mgialitis jerdoni), as he believed it to be the second species 

 (or sub-species) found in the Papuan Region, and no doubt also 

 on the contiguous coast-line of Northern Australia. 



Col. Legge took a prominent part in the compilation of the 

 " List of Vernacular Names for Australian Birds," f which was 

 presented at the Sydney session of the A.A.A.S., 1898. He made 

 several special trips across the Strait for the purpose of conferring 



* His comprehensive address on " Current Australian Ornithology" appears 

 in Emu, iii., pp. 142-155, and probably his latest written and interesting 

 note, " A New Raptor for Tasmania," may be seen in the last volume (xvii.) 

 of The Emu, pp. 103-105. 



t Popularly known as the "Yellow List," on account of the colour of its 

 wrapper. 



