Letters, Announcements, &;c, 493 



present year, spent most of his life in India, in the Indian 

 Civil Service. At the time of the Indian Mutiny he was 

 one of the twelve gallant civilians who so successfully de- 

 fended the Billiard Room at Arra against the mutineers. In 

 1869 he came home on furlough ; and before returning to 

 India in October 1871, he became a Fellow of the Zoological 

 Society of London and a Member of the British Ornitho- 

 logists' Union. On his return to India he became District- 

 Judge at Futtehgurh, which post in the service he held until 

 his death. At Futtehgurh he found ample field for his orni- 

 thological pursuits ; and that he made good use of his oppor- 

 tunities is evinced by his able and careful papers contributed 

 to ^ The Ibis' and to the Zoological Society between 1871 

 and 1878. 



All his letters to his various naturalist friends in this country 

 showed the enthusiasm with which he entered into this con- 

 genial work, and the extreme care he always bestowed upon 

 minute details in his observations — an important qualification 

 in an accurate field naturalist. 



In June 1877 he came again to England, but this time in 

 bad health ; and for many weeks he was an invalid and confined 

 to his room. He temporarily recovered, and was able occa- 

 sionally to visit his friends, and during the short time that 

 elapsed before his death took as keen an interest as ever in 

 his natural-history pursuits. 



We greatly regret to report the death of another of our 

 Members, Mr. Henry Durnford, which took place at Salta, 

 in Bolivia, on the 11th of July last. After returning from 

 Patagonia, as mentioned in the first article in this number, 

 Mr. Durnford had started on an expedition to the northward 

 when the melancholy event which we record took place. As 

 no particulars have yet reached this country, we defer a more 

 lengthened notice of this ardent ornithologist till our next 

 issue. 



Another energetic traveller, Mr. E. C. Buxton, has also 

 passed away. Mr. Buxton's name will be best known to the 



SER. IV. VOL. II. 2 M 



