] 72 Obituary. 



selected to write the portion of the twenty-fifth volume of 

 the ' Catalos^ue of the Birds in the British Museum ' which 

 deals with this group. But to the public in general he will 

 always be best known as the Editor, in 1884-5, of the last 

 two volumes of the fourth edition of Yarrell's * British 

 Birds/ commenced by Professor Newton, and as the author 

 of that most excellent work 'An illustrated Manual of British 

 Birds,' issued in 1889, wherein was included not only the 

 whole essence of ' Yarrell/ but a large amount of fresh 

 information, though two pages only were given to each species. 

 The value of this volume to Palsearctic Ornithologists was 

 speedily made evident by the call for a second edition in 

 1899, after which date Saunders continued to keep up a 

 constant correspondence with those who recorded additions 

 to the British List, as published by himself in 1887, and the 

 last article from his pen was one dealing with this subject 

 in the new periodical entitled ' British Birds.' 



The death of our Secretary Avill, however, be felt most 

 particularly by his friends and fellow-workers, to whom he 

 was always accessible and whose writings he was invariably 

 willing to revise ; in fact the correction of the proofs of 

 others consumed a large portion of his time in later life. 

 Kind and helpful as he was, we cannot end our notice with- 

 out once more expressing our great sense of the loss that we 

 and others have sustained. 



2. Dr. KuDOLPH Blasius. — Although not a member of the 

 British Ornithologists' Union, like his brother Professor 

 Wilhelm Blasius, Dr. Rudolph Blasius was well known ia 

 England, so that his friends, who deeply sympathize with the 

 sad loss of this euiinent ornithologist, will be glad to have some 

 particulars about his life. Paul Heinrich Rudolpli Blasius 

 was born on the 25th of November, 1842, at Braunschweig, 

 the eldest son of the famous Professor of Zoology, Johann 

 Heinrich Blasius (f 1870), in his time a prominent authority 

 on palsearctic ornithology and well known by his standard 

 work 'Fauna der Wirbelthiere Deutschlands ' (1857), of 

 vAhich unfortunately only the "mammals" ever appeared* 



