Letters, Announcements, i^c. 385 



of the collection, which will shortly be on its way home. 

 Writing from the s.s. "^ Ancon/ in the Red Sea, on May 5th, 

 he complains much of the intense heat. '^ It is just as well,^' 

 he says, " that one of the Editors of ' The Ibis ' is not on 

 board. He would tear his hair at seeing about twenty spe- 

 cimens of Larus hemprichi in full breeding-plumage following 

 the ship, and not to be got at. But I hope to obtain some 

 at Aden. A small Tern of the group ;S. minuta was common 

 near Suez, and again off Perim, where a larger Tern with a 

 black head also appeared in pairs. The only other birds 

 seen were a few Gannets (brown with belly white) and a 

 Kite and a Stonechat g-oins: north. •'^ 



Obituary. — Ernest William White, whose untimely death 

 was briefly recorded in our last Number, was born at Ey thorne, 

 near Dover, on the 20th June, 1858, and when six years of age 

 accompanied his parents to South America, Very delicate 

 from birth, it was with great difficulty that he was reared. 

 Books were forbidden him, and thus, untrammelled, he roamed 

 abroad and communed with nature, early displaying a fond- 

 ness for everything that lived. But it was when Henry 

 Durnford came to Buenos Ayres that Whitens passion for 

 natural history burst forth. They were bosom companions, 

 and it was only by his father^s command that White was 

 debarred from accompanying Durnford in his last ill-fated 

 expedition. 



At his own request White was now sent to London to make 

 the acquaintance of naturalists. He there became a Fellow 

 of the Zoological Society of London^ and entered into ar- 

 rangements with Mr. Edward Gerrard, jun., to perfect 

 himself in the preparation of specimens. During his resi- 

 dence in London, White, in his passion for learning, took no 

 heed of weather, and thus developed tuberculosis, the seeds 

 of which were in him from his birth. He was consequently 

 called home, and on the voyage burst a blood-vessel on the 

 lungs and lost a great quantity of blood. He scarcely 

 reached home alive, and was then instantly despatched to 

 Mendoza, where he was enabled to gratify his passion for 



