98 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



frequently recovered from dane;erous attacks that there seemed no 

 special reason why the last should be fatal. Yet they fell, not 

 indeed on one day, nor on the lield of battle, but after so close a 

 union from tirst to last, that, borrowing from a song of triumphant 

 sorrow, a friend may say of them, " They were lovely and pleasant 

 in their lives, and in their deaths they were not divided." 



[T. K. E. Stebbing.] 



The death of Dr. Eichard Bowdleu Shaepe, which took place 

 at his residence at Chiswick on Christmas Day 1909, deprived 

 Ornithologists, the world over, of a guide, philosopher, and friend 

 indeed ; for his knowledge of Systematic Ornitliology, and of the 

 Geographical Distribution of Birds and all that pertained thereto, 

 was profound. So long as he lived this knowledge was at the 

 disposal of his fellow-workers without reserve ; for he was one of 

 the most generous of men, and no man turned away from him 

 empty handed. But when he died a rich hoard of facts died with 

 him, for in spite of his extraordinary output of memoirs and 

 monographs, the best of what he knew he could never be induced 

 to systematize and publish. 



Dr. Sharpe was born in London, November 22, 1847, and was 

 the eldest son of Thomas Bowdler Sharpe, well known as the 

 publisher of ' Sharpe's London Magazine.' His grandfather was 

 the Eev. Lancelot Sharpe, Eector of All Hallows Staining, in the 

 City, and for many years Headmaster of St. Saviour's Grammar 

 School in Southwark. Happily he was not brought up in London, 

 but at the age of six was placed under the care of his aunt, 

 Mrs. Magdalen Wallace, widow of the Eev. J. Wallace, Head- 

 master of the Grammar School at Sevenoaks. She kept a pre- 

 paratory school at Brighton, and here the boy passed three 

 uneventful years ; he was then transferred to the Grammar School 

 at Peterborough, where his cousin, the Eev. James Wallace was 

 Master. Here he gained a King's Scholarship, whicl\ not only 

 guaranteed his education but carried with it a small sum of money 

 which was increased by his services as a choir-boy in the Cathedral. 

 A little later his cousin accepted the Headmastei'ship of the 

 Grammar School at Loughborough, and the boy accompanied him. 

 In these sojournings young Sharpe found scope for his innate love 

 of Natural HistoiT, which was to bear such fruit in after years. 

 But a time of trial was before him. An unsympathetic father, 

 irritated at this marked fondness for w-hat he regarded as an 

 unprofitable subject boding no good for the future, suddenly 

 bundled him off to London — a boy of sixteen — with a sovereign 

 in his pocket, and a letter of introduction to the publishing firm 

 of W. H. Smith & Sons ! But opposition of this kind rarely 

 attains its end. It certainly did not in the present case : on the 

 contrary, it seems to have added fuel to the flames ; and the boy 

 succeeded, in spite of this disaster, in following his bent, for here, 

 though every imaginable obstacle confronted him, he began to 

 write a Monograph of the Kingfishers which mar Iced an epoch 



