VOL. VI.] PROFESSOR ROBERT COLLETT. 295 



Professor Collett could speak English excellently, but was 

 occasionally at fault in writing it, and at his request the 

 present writer made some slight amendments in a paper 

 " On the External Characters of Rudolphi's Rorqual," which 

 he read for the author at a meeting of the Zoological Society 

 on February 2nd, 1886 (published P.Z.S., 1886). In 1893 

 he translated for him " Fugleliv i det arctiske Norge," which 

 was published by Porter early in 1894. Subsequently at 

 Collett's request, he translated his " Norges Vigtigste 

 Hvirveldyr " (=^"The Principal Vertebrates of Norway,") 

 from Norge i det Nittende Aarhundrede, but this failed to find 

 a publisher, because, in the opinion of the late R. B. Sharpe 

 (to whom the English edition was to be, by permission, 

 dedicated), the various species were not treated of in due 

 order in separate sections, but were referred to in the order 

 they might be supposed to be met with in wandering over 

 the different varieties of locality described. 



Collett's latest published work "Norges Pattedyr " (1911 

 to May, 1912) he was anxious to see reproduced in England 

 (and some portion is already translated), but this also has 

 so far failed to secure a publisher It is no secret (now at 

 any rate) that Collett intended to. publish further volumes 

 on the other classes of the vertebrate fauna of his native 

 country, but that unfortunately now falls to the groimd, 

 ut less his MSS., or any of them, are sufficiently forward 

 for some one else to edit. (The Birds were, we believe, to 

 be the last volume of the set.) He had become of late years 

 a good photographer ; a few of his works are illustrated by 

 small photographs taken by him, and at Christmas, 1911, 

 he sent the writer a portfolio containing really beautiful 

 nature- studies of his own taking. 



There can be no question that Collett did far more than 

 anyone else for the zoology of Norway, besides contributing 

 excellent papers on various vertebrates of other parts 

 of the globe. He was of a particularly friendly, kind 

 disposition, and one of the most unassuming of men. His 

 mother was in her day a well-known personality in Christiania 

 on account of her advanced views. The professor was not 

 married. He was ill only a few days, and died of in- 

 flammation of the lungs at the age of seventy, having been 

 born on December 2nd, 1842. He will be greatly missed by 

 his numerous friends, not only in Norway but in many other 

 countries, especially perhaps in England, and not least by 



Alfred Heneage Cocks. 



