196 CONTRIBUTORS TO THE FIRST SERIES OF ' THE IBIS.' 



Niger Delta, while he was appointed in 1895 bj" the Foreign 

 Office a Member of the Committee for the construction of 

 the Uganda Railway, of which he became Chairman. 



He visited East Africa in 1903, inspecting the Railway, 

 then open as far as the Victoria Nyanza, and reached the 

 R-ipon Falls by steamer. 



He is D.Sc. of Cambridge, D.C.L. of Oxford, and LL.D. 

 of Edinburgh, while he is Foreign Secretary of the Royal 

 Geographical Society. He is also an Honorary Member of 

 the Zoological Society, a Fellow of the Linnean Society, 

 and a Member of several foreign scientific bodies. 



From the preceding details it will be seen that Sir John 

 Kirk has passed a long and honourable career in his 

 country's service ; but we must further draw attention to 

 his hardly less important services to science, and to his 

 connexion with ' The Ibis,' to which he contributed a paper 

 on the birds of Eastern Tropical Africa in 1861 (vol. vi. p. 307). 

 His active work has precluded him from publishing the 

 results of his various expeditions since his return to England, 

 but he has accumulated ample material at different times, 

 and has deposited it at Kew and at the British Museum, 

 with notes for the guidance of those who may work out the 

 collections. 



