338 Letters, Announcements , ^c. 



for our first acquaintance with the birds of Shoa^ in Southern 

 Abyssinia. Riippell died at Frankfort in the 91st year of 

 his age. 



We are much indebted to Dr. H. Schalowfor the subjoined 

 notice of Dr. Richard Boehm^ the well-known African 

 traveller and ornithologist : — 



Dr. Richard Boehm. — By a short note, received through 

 Dr. Gerhard Rohlfs, of Zanzibar, we are informed of the 

 death of the well-known young zoologist Dr. Richard Boehm. 

 The words of the telegram leave no doubt that the unfortu- 

 nate traveller has been murdered by the wild tribes westward 

 of lake Tanganyika, but the exact locality where this took 

 place is not yet known. It is much to be regretted that all 

 the rich ornithological collections and most of the notes 

 made during Boehm^s five years' stay in Eastern Africa have 

 been lost, except a few specimens collected in Kakoma and 

 on the Ugalla river. In this lamentable way has ended, at 

 the early age of 30 years, the career of one of the most 

 promising young zoologists of Germany. Richard Boehm 

 was born at Berlin, October 1st, 1857, the eldest son of Dr. 

 Boehm, a distinguished physician. After his zoological 

 studies at the Universities of Jena and Berlin, under the 

 direction of Haeckel, Peters, Cabanis, and others, Boehm 

 devoted himself especially to ornithology, and prepared 

 for his African travels. In April 1880 he left Germany. 

 During the following five years he visited the countries 

 between Zanzibar and Lake Tanganyika, mostly never ex- 

 plored by a zoologist. In 1882 all the collections, journals, 

 maps, and drawings of Boehm were destroyed by fire, A 

 year later the traveller received two shots through his thigh 

 from a native. After his recovery he set out to exj)lore the 

 country near lake Moero (between long. 28° E. and lat. 8° S.), 

 never visited by any European naturalist, and here, probably, 

 he met his death. 



Among the scientific papers of the late Dr. Boehm, we 

 may call special attention to " Helgolander Leptomedusen " 

 (Jenaische Zeitschrift, Band xii.), " Ueber die Pycnogoniden '' 



