5Gi Obiliiiiry. 



in 1859. He may be said to have passed aluiust liis whole 

 life in the Jardin des Plantes, where he was appointed 

 deputy for his father in 1876. In 1891 he was elected 

 Director of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle and of the 

 Menagerie, as already mentioned, and held these posts until 

 his death on the 21st of April last. Milne-Edwards's first 

 work on Birds, published in 186(5, nlated to the osteology 

 of the Dodo, to which subject, as well as to the allied and 

 other extinct birds of the Mascarene Islands, he paid 

 considerable attention. But the great feat for which he 

 must always deserve the gratitude of the students of this 

 class of animals was his ' Recherches Anatomiqucs et Pale- 

 ontologiques pour servir a THistoire des Oiseaux Fossiles de 

 la France,' which was completed in four volumes in 1872. 

 This excellent piece of original work will be found well 

 spoken of in 'The Ibis' for 18G6 (p. 413), and we quite 

 coincide with what was there said of its great merits. 



Alphouse Milne-Edwards was also joint author, along with 

 M. Grandidier, of the two volumes on birds which foim part 

 of the grand series of the latter's ' Histoire Physique, 

 Naturelle et Politique de Madagascar.' This portion of the 

 work was finished in 1879, and is the chief authority on the 

 members of that most strange and interesting Ornis, More 

 recently (1893) he published, in conjunction with M. Oustalet, 

 in the volume which commemorates the centenary of the 

 foundation of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle ef Paris, a 

 memoir upon birds now extinct of which specimens arc con- 

 tained in the Museum (see Ibis, 1891, p. 440). A reference 

 to the General Subject-Index of ' The Ibis,' recently issued, 

 will supply the titles of various other works of the deceased 

 naturalist relating to the Class of Birds; but enough, we 

 think, has been said to show that Alphonse Milne-Edwards 

 during his busy life made many excellent contributions to 

 our knowledge of the Class of Birds, on the osteology of 

 which, indeed, he was one of our best authorities. 



