Obituary. 471 



At the time of liis death Stoliczka was returning laden with 

 natural-history spoils from Kashgar and Yarkand, with the 

 mission dispatched by the Government of India under Sir 

 Douglas Forsyth to those distant regions. 



His enthusiasm had led him to join this expedition, though 

 strongly urged not to do so on aecount of the state of his 

 health. His name must be added to the honourable roll of 

 those who, reckoning no risks where science is to be served, 

 have died in the advancement of her cause. 



Dr. J. J. Kaup, for many years Director of the Museum in 

 Darmstadt, at one period of his career paid considerable at- 

 tention to ornithology. Unfortunately his ornithological 

 work was warped and biased by his adherence to a peculiar 

 artificial system much in vogue about forty or fifty years 

 ago, but which has now happily given place to more rational 

 views. 



Dr. Kaup's chief ornithological publications are his ' Skiz- 

 zirte Entwickclungs-Geschichte u. natiirl. System der europ. 

 Thierwelt (Darmstadt : 1829) , " Monographic der Genera der 

 FalconidEe" (published in the 'Isis^ for 1847, and illus- 

 trated by two admirable plates by Wolf), and his ' Classifi- 

 cation der Saugethiere und Vogel^ (Darmstadt: 1844). In 

 these a vast number of new generic names are proposed, 

 some of which have been adopted. 



Besides these. Dr. Kaup described a number of species in 

 Sir W. Jardine's ' Contributions to Ornithology,' in the 

 ' Isis,' the ' Proceedings ' of the Zoological Society, in ' Wieg- 

 man's Archiv,' and in the ' Journal fiir Ornithologie.' His 

 descriptions arc, unfortunately, exceedingly brief and difficult 

 to make out ; so that at the present time some of the names 

 he proposed run the risk of falling altogether into abeyance 

 through the insufficiency of the characters accompanying their 

 introduction. 



The zoological collection in the Darmstadt Museum, long- 

 under Dr. Kaup's charge, though not extensive, has the merit 

 of being in good order, the specimens being very well mounted. 

 In this respect it, and several other collections in Germany, 



