19.2 Obituary. 



eggs of the Water-Hail in what was once Whittlesea 

 Mere." 



This is indeed a peep into the past, and might serve as an 

 introduction to any naturalist who did not happen to know 

 Southwell. But as a matter of fact he must have been well- 

 known not only to the naturalists of East Anglia, where he 

 spent his life, but far beyond the confines of his own county. 

 For although he did not travel much, he was a zealous 

 correspondent, and his name would be familiar to many 

 who never saw him, through the medium of his books and 

 published writings. 



Born at King's Lynn on dune 15, 1831, as soon as he was 

 old enough to turn to a profession he entered Gurney's Bank 

 at Lynn, whence he was transferred to the brancb at Faken- 

 ham and subsequently to Norwich. There he spent the 

 remainder of his life, retiring from business in 189G after 

 exactly fifty years' service. 



When the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society was 

 founded in 1869 he was one of the original members, and long 

 acted as honorary secretary, besides serving on the journal 

 committee. The ' Transactions ' of the Society, which he 

 helped to edit from that time forward, frequently contained 

 valuable papers of his own relating to the mammals and 

 birds of the county, as well as to archaeological subjects of 

 local interest, such as ancient wildfowl decoys, swan-marks, 

 and the former condition of the fen-lands. In 1879, when 

 he published a new edition of Lubbock's ' Fauna of Norfolk/ 

 he was elected president of the Society, an honour which 

 was again conferred upon him in 1893. He had become a 

 Fellow of the Zoological Society in 1872, and in 1881 was 

 elected a member of the British Ornithologists' Union. In 

 that year he published his first book, ' The Seals and Whales 

 of the British Seas' (reviewed in the ' Field ' of May Uti, 

 1881), and to this subject for many years he continued 

 to devote considerable attention. FVom 1884 onward he 

 contributed to the 'Zoologist' an annual report on the 

 seal- and whale-fisheries, of great interest and value, the 

 statistics being collected from the most trustworthy sources of 



