6o PEOCEEDIIf&S OF THE 



prominent member of tlie " Old Hawking Club," and a friend 

 of the more famous falconers of his time. His Aviaries at 

 Lilford Hall, in Northamptonshire — spacious, well kept, and well 

 stocked — were the envy of field-ornithologists. In addition to 

 the birds of prey, for which they were famous, they regularly 

 sheltered other birds of various kinds, and observations upon 

 the breeding-habits in confinement and records of the experi- 

 mental work of acclimatisation of exotic game-birds of distinct 

 scientific value, which were thus rendered possible, were from 

 time to time made public. 



Lord Lilford liberally supported the Northamptonshire Natural 

 History Society and the British Ornithologists' Union, of which 

 he was a founder, and for many years President. Shortly before 

 his death he completed (at great expense, as with his ' British 

 Birds,') an elegant work in two volumes upon the'Bii-ds of North- 

 amptonshire,' which for careful authorship and beauty of illust- 

 ration will long render his name memorable in the annals of 

 British Oruitholog}^ He died in peace in his 63rd year (June 17, 

 1896), midst the surroundings in which this charming work had 

 been written. He was a Fellow of the Zoological Society, and was 

 elected a Eellow of the Linnean Society on 20th March, 1862. 



Baron Feedinand von Mueller. — The death, on the 9th of 

 October, 1896, of this distinguished botanist came as a surprise 

 and shock to his numei"ous correspondents, who were unaware 

 of any immediate danger, although his health had been failing 

 for some years past. He was born at Kostock in 1825, studying 

 medicine and natural history at Kiel, graduating there as 

 Ph.D., whilst investigating the flora of Schleswig-Holstein. 

 He early lost both his father and mother from aftections of 

 the lungs ; and in 1847, having himself perceived symptoms of 

 emphysema, he resolved to go to Australia in search of a climate 

 more favourable to his chances of life. How well the change 

 answered is apparent from the fact that he lived nearly half a 

 century in that country. Previous to his departure he had drawn 

 up a memoir for publication in ' Flora,' his ' Breviarium plantarum 

 Ducatus Slesvicensis austro-occidentalis,' but which only ap- 

 peared in that Journal for 1853, the author's name appearing as 

 Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich Mueller ; if these names were correct 

 he dropped two of his appellatives, for we find no other instance 

 of his use of more than "Ferdinand." 



On his arrival in Australia he was at first employed by a 

 chemist, as his assistant, in Adelaide, and, by his study of the 

 native plants, soou attracted attention. He devoted four years, 

 from 1848 to 1852, in travelling, at his own cost, in searcli of 

 plants, in the latter year being appointed by Governor La Trobe 

 to be Government Botanist, a post then created, and filled by 

 him to the end of his days. The deceased botanist, with two of 

 his compatriots, founded the Eoyal Society of Victoria in 1854, 

 and read the tirst paper recorded in its ' Transactions ' ; he was 



