1 92 1.] Obituary, 729 



William Warde Fowler. 



By the death of Mr. William Warde Fowler, which occurred 

 at Kiiigham in Oxfordshire on 14 June last, we are deprived 

 of one who comhined the rare distinction of being botli a 

 classical scholar and an ornithologist. 



Born at Langford Bud vi lie, Somerset, on 16 May, 184-7, 

 he was the second son of Mr. John Coke Fowler, a stipendiary 

 magistrate at Swansea. From Marlborough he proceeded to 

 Oxford, where he matriculated at New College, but he won 

 a scholarship at Lincoln in the same year, with which College 

 lie was closely associated for the rest of his life, being elected 

 a Fellow in 1872. He graduated in 1870 taking a first class 

 in Lit. Hum., and he served as Tutor and Sub-Rector 

 of his college until he retired from active work a few 

 years ago. 



Wardens first and perhaps best-known work, ' A year with 

 the Birds,' was published in 1886 under the pen-name of 

 " An Oxford Tutor." It combined personal charm and good 

 scholarship with a love and power of observation new to that 

 generation of Oxford men. The book deals with bird-life as 

 seen at Oxford, at the writer's country home at Kingham in 

 the valley of the Evenlode, and with observations made 

 in the Alps of Switzerland. The second edition contains a 

 good list of the Oxford birds. His otlier collected studies 

 were 'Tales of the Birds,' published in 1888, "^ Summer 

 Studies of Birds and Books,' 1895, and ' IMore Tales of 

 the Birds,' in 1902 ; while in 1901, in collaboration with 

 Prof, L. C. Miall, he edited with introduction and notes an 

 edition of White's Selborne. 



Perhaps his most remarkable observations were those on 

 the Marsh-Warbler [Acroceplialus palustris). Owing to its 

 very close resemblance to the Reed-Warbler, it escaped the 

 attention of the earlier British ornithologists, and it was not 

 recognized as a Britiish bird even so late as when Newton 

 published his edition of Yarrell. Between the years 1892 

 and 1905 Mr. Fowler found it nesting every year near his 

 home at Kiugham, on the Lveulode, in Oxfordshire ; and in 



