Oblldnvi/. — ()cc(i.s/<)ii((l Safes. 43 



607. Otis melanogaster. (Bl:ick-l)ellie(l Knorluian.) 

 Three specimens were obtained in the Great Letaba Valley 



during September 1905. [C. H. T.] 



This species has been recorded from Natal and l\hod(!sia, 



so tliat tliis record in the Transvaal forms a territorial link 



between the two districts. Althout«h not j)lentiful it is not 



uncommon in the Great Letaba Valley. 



OBITUARY. 



Mr. Edward Cavendish Taylor, whose death took place in 

 London on the I'Jth April, ] 905, at the age of 73, was an 

 ornithologist of considerable eminence. He was one of the 

 original members of the British Ornithologists' Union and 

 contributed a number of pajiers to its Journal, 'The Ibis.' 

 He was an enthusiastic collector and in his younger days 

 travelled somewhat extensively, devoting some attention to 

 African Ornithology in frequent visits to Egypt and in an 

 expedition to Tunis and Algeria in 1859. His collections of 

 skins and eggs, numbering in all rather over 2000 specimens, 

 were bequeathed by him to the British Museum. 



Lieut-Colonel Leonard Howard Loyd Irby, whose death 

 took place in London on the l-lth May, 1905, was well known 

 by name as an ornithologist throughout the w^orld. He was 

 also a distinguished soldier, having served in the Crimea 

 during the siege of Sebastopol, the Indian Mutiny (including 

 the relief of Lucknow), the defence of the Alum Bagh, and the 

 siege and fall of the former town. He was best known to 

 English Ornithologists as the author of ' Irby's Key List of 

 British Birds," but was the writer of a far more important 

 \\ork on the Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar, which 

 described many species from Northern Africa. 



Colonel Irby was born in 183(1. 



OCCASIONAL NOTES. 



(1) An appreciative review of the first No. of Vol. I. of 

 this Jouinal appears in the ' ll>is' for October 1905. 



