VOL. VI.] NOTES. 195 



that a Buffon's Skua {Stercorarius longicaudus) was shot by 

 Major Cox of JMichaelchurch Court on August 28th, 1912, 

 while grouse shooting on the Black Hill, the Herefordshire 

 portion of the Black Mountains. It was a bird of the year 

 in bro^^■n plumage, and its crop was full of whinberries. 



obituary, 

 thp: late a. o. hume. c.b. 



It is with much regret that \\e chronicle the death of Allan 

 Octavian Hume, the celebrated Indian ornithologist, who 

 died recently at the age of eighty-three. Of late years 

 Mr. Hume had ceased to take an active interest in ornithology, 

 but he will always be remembered for the magnificent 

 collection of Indian birds and eggs which he brought together 

 and finally presented to the British Museum. Between the 

 years 1873 and 1889 he also published a periodical entitled 

 Stray Feathers, which was devoted to Indian ornithology, 

 and the bulk of the material for the well-known work on the 

 Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds was accumulated by him. 

 He also collaborated M'ith Captain C. H. T. Marslaall in 

 publishing a work on the Game-Birds of India, Burmah 

 and Ceylon (1879-80). Mr. Hume first offered his collection 

 to the British Museum in 1883, but it was not till 1885 that 

 Dr. R. B. Sharpe went out to India in order to bring the 

 collection home. By this time probably some 20,000 skins 

 had been destroyed by the ravages of insects, but the most 

 valuable part of the collection, which still comprised 63,000 

 bird-skins, 500 nests and 18,500 eggs, as well as some 400 

 skins of mammals, Mas practically intact or only slightly 

 damaged. 



On turning to Dr. R. B. Sharpe"s presidential address in 

 the Proceedings of the Forth Intern. Ornith. Congress, in which 

 an account is given of the chief accessions to the Ornitho- 

 logical Department of the British Museum, we were much 

 surprised to find that, by some oversight, all mention of this 

 enormous and invaluable donation has been omitted, Avith 

 the exception of a bare reference to it on p. 143. There is, 

 however, a detailed account of the collection, and some 

 interesting facts with regard to Mr. Hume's life, in the 

 History of the CoUeclions in the British Museum [Natural 

 History) : Birds, by Dr. R. B. Sharpe, pp. 390-3 ; while an 

 interesting account of how he packed and brought home 

 this vast collection was contributed bv Dr. Sharpe to the Ihis 

 for 1885, pp. 456-62. 



F. C. R. JOUKDAIN, 



