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THE LATE WALTER IBBOTSON BEAUMONT. 



It is with great regret that we have to record the death of 

 Mr. W. I. Beaumont of Plymouth, a keen field-naturalist 

 and an enthusiastic supporter of our marking scheme, who 

 was accidentally dro\Mied on May 3rd, at Tarbert, Loch Fyne. 

 We are indebted for particulars to Mr. Godfrey Heathcote, 

 who writes as follows : — 



" Mr. Beaumont, as you know, had entered with enthusiasm 

 into your Bird-marking Scheme, and spent a great part of 

 the summers of 1910 and 1911 cruising among the small 

 islands off the west coast of Scotland for the purpose of " ring- 

 ing " young gulls and terns. With the intention of carrying 

 on this work during the present summer, he went to Tarbert 

 on the 25th April to superintend the fitting out of his yacht, 

 and had almost completed his arrangements when the fatal 

 accident occurred. It is thought that he must have been 

 attacked with faintness, and fallen from the j^acht's dinghy 

 while in the act of laying out a kedge, for no sound was heard 

 either by those on board the yachts and launches lying near, 

 or by those on shore. He was a skilful and experienced 

 yachtsman, and, with his six-ton single-handed cruising yawl 

 ' Hawk -Moth,' was well knoA\Ti on the west coast from 

 Loch Fyne to Skye. He had been a member of the Royal 

 Cruising Club since last July. He was also a member of the 

 Alpine Club and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical and 

 Zoological Societies, as well as a member of both the British 

 Ornithologists' Union and Club. 



" Regarding his ornithological work, he was characteristi- 

 cally modest, as in other matters, but, though he could not 

 claim the wide range of knowledge possessed bj^ our leading 

 ornithologists, he was more than an ordinary field-naturalist. 

 He had, in addition to his biological training, a natural 

 faculty for close and accurate observation, and, in particular, 

 I was frequently struck by the quickness of his eye for 

 any ' character ' likely to be useful in the identification of 

 a new or unknown species. 



" Mr. Beaumont was in his fiftieth year, and was unmarried." 



Dr. E. J. Allen, Director of the Marine Biological Associa- 

 tion of the United Kingdom, writes to us from Plymouth as 

 follows : — 



" Mr. W. I. Beaumont commenced his biological studies 

 under the late Professor Milnes Marshall in Manchester, and 

 subsequently went to Cambridge, where he entered Emmanuel 

 College. After leaving Cambridge he took up marine biology, 



