752 Obituary. 



He began with the Fijis, to the authorities of which colony 

 he was provided with recommendations from Sir Walter 

 Buller, Dr. Sclater, and others. Soon after his arrival 

 there, and in the course of his first journey across the 

 principal island, he had a serious attack of dysentery, from 

 which he had barely recovered before a second completely 

 prostrated him, and he was ordered by his medical adviser 

 to leave the island as soon as possible for New Zealand, in 

 the hope that the voyage would revive him. It was, however, 

 too late for him to be removed, and he died at Suva on the 

 7th of June, his last letter (to a brother) containing the 

 words " I am among friends, and quite easy." 



Mr. Wigles worth had so prepared himself for his work 

 that he knew almost everything about Polynesian Orni- 

 thology which the study of specimens or books could teach ; 

 but, more than that, he knew how very little all that know- 

 ledge came to, and how necessary it was to add to it before 

 so many species peculiar to this or that group of islands, 

 whose fate is now in jeopardy, became extinct. It would be 

 no easy matter to find anyone with such knowledge to replace 

 him, and certainly not without a delay that would be fatal to 

 the threatened forms — so rapidly is the process of extirpation 

 going on. Apart, then, from the loss to his many friends 

 both in this country and in Germany, the death of so enter- 

 prising and well -instructed an Ornithologist in his full vigour 

 is a real loss to science. 



We also much regret that we have to announce the death 

 at Nairobi, in British East Africa, of William Doherty, 

 who was one of the best-known and successful of Collectors. 

 We hope to be able to give a notice of his life and work in 

 our next number. 



