Obituary. 503 



Sevastopol he managed in brief intervals when off duty to 

 shoot and skin a variety of birds at the head of Balaclava 

 Harbour and other localities within the extremely limited 

 region accessible to the British Army engaged in the siege. 

 \ isitors to his house will recall, among these, a Great White 

 Heron and a Bittern obtained there. It can easily be imagined 

 that India opened up a wide field for his energies aid 

 researches. It was not, however, until 1868, when he first 

 went to Gibraltar, that he came across a field which he was 

 destined to make largely his own. At this time our know r - 

 lerlge of the birds of the Spanish Peninsula was extremely 

 limited, and what was then known was mainly due to 

 Lord Lilford, who had visited the country on several occasions 

 and had contributed papers on its birds to the ' Ibis ' in 1865 

 and 1866. It was a happy chance that the two had been 

 most intimate friends from pre-Crimean days in Dublin. 



Major Irby now devoted much time to a thorough study 

 of the birds of S.W. Andalucia and of the opposite coast of 

 Barbary. He had, however, at this time, and indeed 

 throughout his life, an invincible objection to publishing any 

 account of his experiences, and it was largely due to Lord 

 Lilford that he was at last induced to set about his book on 

 the Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar, which, together 

 with Lord Lilford's work, has formed the basis of nearly all 

 the writings on the subject which have since appeared. 



This book came out in 1875 and is full of valuable 

 information, much of which was at the time entirely new, 

 on the fauna of this region. 



Colonel Irby was a man of marked individuality, and at 

 all times most willing to give assistance and information 

 to those whom he viewed as genuine students of Natural 

 History, but he had an undisguised detestation of the 

 race of "collectors" and wanton destroyers of bird-life. 

 The present writer will never forget the outpour of indig- 

 nation by Colonel Irby upon the owner of a private collection 

 who exhibited with pride whole trays-full of Choughs' and 

 Peregrines' eggs, in the collection of which entire districts 



