168 Obituary. 



XII. — Obituary. 



Mr. William Borrer and Mr. J. Van Voorst. 



Mr. William Borrer^ of Brook Hill, Cowfold, Horsham_, 

 who died at a ripe age on the 22nd of October, 1898, was one 

 of tlie old school of British ornithologists. He was educated 

 at St. Peter's College, Cambridge (B.A. 1838, M.A. 1841), 

 and even in his undergraduate days he took a keen interest in 

 natural history. The continuance of this taste may be seen 

 by the frequent mention of his name in the works of Knox, 

 Gould, Yarrell, and others, as well as in the pages of ' The 

 Zoologist.' His magnum opus is ' The Birds of Sussex,' a 

 very interesting volume — with a coloured plate of his great 

 treasure, the Gyr-Falcon — published in 1891. He was 

 elected to the B. O. U. in 1878. In private life he was 

 a most estimable and genial man. 



John Van Voorst. — Although Mr. Van Voorst was not a 

 member of the British Ornithologists' Union, the death of 

 the publisher of '^The Ibis,' since its first appearance in 1859, 

 must not pass unnoticed by us. Mr. Van Voorst, who was 

 of Dutch descent, was born in 1804, and was therefore in his 

 ninety-fifth year at the time of his decease, on the 24th of 

 July last. As a jaublisher of works of high class on various 

 branches of natural history he was without a rival ; and, in 

 our special line, it is hardly necessary to mention the classic 

 editions of Yarrell's 'British Birds'; while Hewitson's 'Eggs 

 of British Birds,' Knox's * Birds of Sussex ' and ' Game-birds 

 and Wild-fowl,' did much to stimulate a taste for ornithology 

 and oology in bygone days. The later works he published 

 need not be enumerated. Van Voorst retired from business 

 in 1886, but he retained his interest in old friends and old 

 topics until within the last few months of his life. 



