3io



Obituary.



years we should expect to find their range extended when from

favourable conditions a larger number of birds arrived in the

country, and this would account for the scattered stragglers

occasionally found beyond the normal borders of its range. In

years of scarcity on the other hand the diminution in numbers

would naturally first occur towards the periphery of its distribu¬

tion and these details are confirmed to our mind in the map

shown.


There is also another reason for taking this view. At

least three other species, the Red-backed Shrike, Wryneck and

Turtle Dove enter this country by a similar route to the Nightin¬

gale, they are all of limited distribution in our islands and their

distribution is, at the same time, on precisely similar lines. The

Red-backed Shrike does not reach quite as far as the Nightingale,

the Wryneck rather further, while the Turtle Dove, whose range

is increasing yearly, reaches furthest of all. But there are also

species that are only known in England from scarce stragglers to

our South-Eastern coasts. The Tawny Pipit and Great Reed

Warbler, these probably arriving along similar lines, stop short

at the neighbouring shores of France. It cannot be argued that

they dare not cross the Channel since they cross the Mediterran¬

ean and the coast on either shore is very similar. The cause of

this limitation may still be open to doubt but these cases must be

borne in mind before we decide that a i,oooft. will form an

insuparable barrier to a Nightingale. J. L. B.



OBITUARY.



On the 25th March, after an illness of only a few hours’

duration, our member Col. G. A. Momber died at San Remo,

Italy, where he had resided for the past nine years. Born in i860,

he served many years in the Militia and saw active service in

South Africa in 1900 with the Remounts. He was devoted to an

open-air life, to hunting and farming; throughout his life a

student and lover of birds, he became in later life a keen

aviculturist. By the English colony at San Remo he was highly

esteemed not only for his intrinsic merits but also for the



