54: Ohkuanj. 



V'lII. — Ohituary. Dr. Rudolf Blasius and 

 Mr. Howard Saunders, 



Dr. Rudolf Blasius, the President of the German 

 Ornithoh^gical Society, we regret to say, died on the 

 24th September, 1907, from pleurisy. A medical Doctor 

 by profession, he was beloved by all who came into contact 

 with him, and many sorrowing friends paid their last 

 respects to the departed gentleman, whose jovial and friendly 

 personality will be sadly missed in Berlin. He was born on 

 the 25th November, 1842, in Brunswick, and was the son of 

 Dr. Heinrich Blasius, Professor of Natural History in the then 

 " Collegium Carolinum," and Directer of the Ducal Museum. 

 He was appointed Military M.O. early in 1870 and in July 

 joined the Field Hospital of the 10th Army Corps. He 

 travelled much, visiting, at various periods of his life, England, 

 Italv, Sicily, Austria, Copenhagen, Bohemia, &c., and in 

 1881, when on a visit to Loudon, he made the acquaintance 

 of Dresser, Salviu, Sharpe, &c. He also visited Sclater, 

 Forbes, and Seebohm. He was a personal friend of Alfred 

 Brehm and Gustav Radde. He was present at the First 

 Ornithological Congress in Vienna in the yeju* 1884, when 

 lie was elected Chairman of the Permanent Ornithological 

 Committee, which office he held for ten years. In 1885 he 

 published, with Von Hazek, the ' Ornis,' after which he 

 travelled much again. In 1900 he was elected Presilent of 

 the German Ornithological Society. 



(These remarks are culled from a review of the life of 

 Dr. Blasins from the pen of Mr. Nehrkorn, which appeared 

 in the January No. of the ' Journal fiir Ornithologie.' — 

 A. H.). 



Mr. Howard Saunders, Secretary B.O.U. — The following 

 obituary notice appeared in the ' Ibis ' for January 1908: — 



"■ It is seldom that the Members of our Union — and, above 

 all, the Editors — have to deplore the loss of so well-tried and 

 trusty a friend as their late Secretary, Mr. Howard Saunders, 

 whose death will be acutely felt, not only by his fj-ieuds 



