LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDOIf. 65 



"Solitaire," but an island never before visited by a zoologist. 

 Though his stay there was limited to forty-eight hours (Ibis, 1865, 

 p. 146) he not only obtained two new species of birds, but examined 

 some caves, in one of which he found bones that he at once saw 

 were those of Pezophaps ; and their discovery led to the elaborate 

 researches, subsequently directed by him, at the cost of the 

 British Association and of the Royal Society, which ended in the 

 excavation not only of several complete skeletons of that very 

 remarkable bird, but of an enormous multitude of its bones, and 

 those of several other extinct forms only known before from the 

 vague indication of old voyagers. The spoils thus obtained were 

 described in three papers in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' 

 (1869, p. 327, and vol. clxviii. pp. 423 and 438) ; the first being 

 by himself and liis brother, while he was assisted in the two 

 others by Dr. Giinther and Mr. J. W. Clark respectively. In 

 like manner he contributed not a little to the elucidation of the 

 ancient fauna of Mauritius. His official position enabled him to 

 facilitate the operations of the late Mr. George Clarke in the 

 recovery of the remains of the Dodo and other lost bii'ds from 

 the mud of the now celebrated Mare-aux-Songes in that island ; 

 and he was the first to recognize among them fragments of the 

 marvellous Aplianapteryx of Von Frauenfeld, afterwards de- 

 scribed by Prof. Alphonse Milne-Edwards (Ann. Sci. Nat. ser. 5, 

 X. p. 325"; Ibis, 1869, p. 256). In 1867 he passed a month in 

 the Seychelles, where he found many new and unexpected species 

 (P.Z.S. 1867, pp. 344, 821 ; Ibis, 1867, p. 325) ; and ten years 

 later he induced the late Mr. Bewsher to examine the Comoros, 

 which, though they had been before visited by other zoologists, 

 were found to yield fresh novelties (P. Z. S. 1877, p. 295). In 

 the meanwhile he had been assisting several travelling naturalists 

 in Madagascar. 



In 1877 he was promoted to the post of Colonial Secretary and 

 Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica, but it was with no little regret 

 that he left Mauritius. In his new appointment his opportunities 

 of advancing Ornithology were very limited ; nevertheless he added 

 two or three species to the fauna of the island, and in the ' Hand- 

 book of Jamaica ' for 1881 he published a List of its Birds drawn 

 up by himself and his brother. In 1882 his health broke down 

 and he was compelled to return to England, and next year to 

 retire from the Colonial Service. In 1888, being President of 

 the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society, he appended to 

 his Address a List of the Birds of the Mascarene Islands ; and 

 his last work was to contribute in 1893 to the ' Transactions of 

 the Zoological Society ' (in conjunction with Dr. Gadow) an 

 article on further remains of the Dodo and other extinc t Birds 

 of Mauritius — some of them wholly unsuspected — which had been 

 recovered from the Mare-aux-Songes through the exertions of 

 Mr. Sauzier. 



Sir Edward was one of the founders of the British Ornitho- 

 logists' Union in 1858, and was elected a Corresponding Member 



LINN. SOC. PBOCEEDIAGS. — SESSION 1896-97. f 



