Letters, Announcements, &^c. 123 



utmost enthusiasm of the beauties of the tropical region on 

 which he was entering, the scenery of which seemed greatly 

 to exceed his expectations. One month later a telegram was 

 received at Buenos Ay res from a gentleman living near to 

 Salta, to whom Henry Durnford had obtained an introduction, 

 stating briefly that the young naturalist committed to his 

 care had breathed his last on an estancia at Campo Santo, at 

 10 o'clock on the morning of July 13th. A subsequent letter 

 explained that his death had resulted from a sudden attack 

 of heart-disease, the seeds of which had doubtless been sown 

 during a fever which had nearly proved fatal to him at Chupat 

 a few months before. 



The first paper communicated to this Journal by Henry 

 Durnford was in 1874, entitled " Ornithological Notes on the 

 North-Frisian Islands and adjacent Coast '' (Ibis, 1874, pp. 

 391-406) . In 1876 (pp. 157-166) he commenced his " Orni- 

 thological Notes from the Neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres.^^ 

 These were continued in 1877 (pp. 166-203). The same year 

 (pp. 27-46) his " Notes on some Birds observed in the Chupat 

 Valley, Patagonia, and in the neighbouring District" appeared; 

 and, following the same subject, he sent us in 1878 (pp. 389- 

 406) his "Notes on the Birds of Central Patagonia." As these 

 last were passing through the press the tidings of their author^s 

 death reached us. All these papers show that Henry Durn- 

 ford was a keen observer of birds in their wild state ; and his 

 collections, which were submitted to us for examination, 

 enabled us to judge of the rapidity and accuracy with which 

 he had accomplished the by no means easy task of mastering 

 the names of the species he met with. 



Henry Durnford was elected a Member of the British Or- 

 nithologists^ Union in 1876. 



Death of Dr. Stolker. — From the ' Mittheilungen des orni- 

 thologischen Vereines in Wien ' for August last, we learn of 

 the death, at the early age of 39, of Dr. Carl Stolker, the dis- 

 tinguished Swiss ornithologist, of St. Fiden, near St. Gall, in 

 Switzerland. Dr. Stolker was the author of several papers in 

 the ^Journal fiir Ornithologie,' the 'Bulletin^ of the Swiss 



