LIXXE/VN SOOIETT OF LOXDOX. 6c 



besides giving the synonymy, with descriptions oB tlie plumages 

 of both sexes, the habitat, and useful uotes on all species 

 recognised as European, it has the advantage of comprising also 

 the latest views of the author on the general subject, and 

 especially on classification and nomenclature. 



In the course of years he accumulated a very large collection 

 of both birds and eggs, the former amounting to nearlv 12,000 

 specimens, and all of these, together with his entire library of 

 ornithological works, are now in the possession of the Manchester 

 Museum. 



He was elected a Fellow of this Society 4th November, 1880, 

 and served on the Council from 1883 to 1884. He died suddenly 

 of heart-failure at tlie Villa Marie Louise, Cannes, on the 

 28th November, 1915, aged 77. 



By the death of Professor David Thomas Gwynxe-Vaughan, 

 which took place at lieading on September 4th, 1915, the Linnean 

 Society has lost a Fellow of high scientific standing, and one who 

 might reasonably have been expected to render to it long and 

 distinguished services. It was only in recent yeai's that residence 

 in or near London made it possible for him to take part in the 

 business of the Society, though he contributed to its 'Transactions' 

 so long ago as 1897, and was elected Fellow in 1907. 



He was born on March 12th, 1871, at Boyston House, Llan- 

 dovery, being the elder son of Henry Thomas Gwynne-Vaughan 

 of Cynghordy, later of Erwood Hull, Bi'econshire. Llis mother 

 was Elizabeth, second daughter of David Thomas, of Eoyston 

 House, Llandovery. She died in 1874, and Professor Gwynne- 

 Vauglian was her only child. He went to school at Monmouth 

 in 1882, and proceeded with an exhibition from school to Christ's 

 College, Cambridge, where in 1891 he was elected to a scholarship 

 in Science. In 1893 he took a First Class in the Natural Sciences 

 Tripos, and left Cambridge to take up a Mastership. This, 

 however, he soon relinquished in order to enter on research. 

 AVith this object he went to Kew, and was admitted to the 

 Jodrell Laboratory within the Royal Gardens, 



This move was the determining point of his career. For the 

 Laboratory was tlien under the direction of Dr. D. H. Scott, who 

 soon recognised the qualities which had passed unnoticed among 

 ihe crowd of undergraduates at Cambridge. AVittingly, or un- 

 wittingly, Gwynne-Vaughan had come under the influence of the 

 very investigator by whom his patient and acute powers of 

 observation could best be directed into that channel of anatomical 

 enquiry, which he subsequently did so much to advance. Stelar 

 problems were in their infancy in 1895. Van Tieghem had 

 broken fresh ground, and had provided a terminology which was 

 in advance of the observed facts. What was then urgently 

 required was cool and controlled observation : and this was 

 exactly what Gwynne-Vaughan was so well fitted to suppl3^ 



He first engaged in the examination of the stelar conditions 



