Vol i9o^ in ] Notes and News - 355 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Emile Oustalet, a Corresponding Fellow of the American Ornithol- 

 ogists' Union, died on the 23d of October, 1905, at Saint Cast (Cotes du 

 Nord), France, in the 61st year of his age. He was the most eminent of 

 recent French ornithologists. He was born in Montbeliard, Department 

 of Doubs, on the 24th of August, 1844. After completing his studies at the 

 Lyceum he devoted himself to the study of natural history at the Ecole 

 des Hautes-Etudes in Paris. His first scientific publications related to the 

 organs of resperation in the larvae of Neuroptera and to the fossil insects 

 of France. In the year 1873 he succeeded Jules Verreaux at the Paris 

 Museum of Natural History, and from this time on devoted himself exclu- 

 sively to the study of ornithology. The rich collections received from the 

 French missionaries in China, and from the French colonies in Indo-China 

 and Africa especially engaged his attention, and eventually he became 

 admittedly the highest authority on the birds of China. Upon the death 

 of Alphonse Milne-Edwards, in 1900, he became his successor at the Museum 

 and was appointed to the chair of Mammalogy and Ornithology, which 

 position he held till his death. 



In June of last year he attended the International Ornithological Con- 

 gress held in London, and few of the ornithologists who then had the pleas- 

 ure of meeting the great French scholar could have anticipated, as said by 

 Hellmayr, in his recent biographical notice of Oustelet (Ornithol. Monats- 

 berichte, XIV, No. 1, April, 1906, pp. 57-59, to which we are indebted for 

 many of the facts here presented), that "a few months later the earth 

 would close over his mortal remains." Although his health was far from 

 satisfactory, the news of his death came as a great surprise. The last days 

 of his life were unspeakably painful and death was a release. He was 

 interred in his native city on the 29th of October. 



A list of Oustelet's scientific publications was issued by Jules Rousset 

 in 1900, in a special brochure, wherein 143 titles were enumerated, by far 

 the greater part being ornithological. Among his more important works 

 may be mentioned the following: 'Les Oiseaux de la Chine' (with Pere 

 Armand David), published in 1877; 'Etude sur la faune ornithologique 

 des iles Seychelles,' in 1877-1878; 'Monographie des Oiseaux de la famille 

 des Megapodiides,' in two parts, 1880, 1881; 'Etudes sur les Mammiferes 

 et les Oiseaux des iles Comores,' 1888; 'Mission scientifique du Cap Horn, 

 1882-1883, Oiseaux,' 1891; 'Catalogue des Oiseaux provenant du voyage 

 de N. Bonvalot et du Prince Henrie d 'Orleans, a, travers le Turkestan, le 

 Tibet et la Chine occidentale,' 1893-1894; 'Les Mammiferes et les Oiseaux 

 des iles Mariannes,' 1895-1896; ' Notice sur la faune ornithologique ancienne 

 et moderne des iles Mascareignes et en particulier de File Maurice,' 1897; 

 'Les Oiseaux du Cambodge, du Laos, de l'Annam et du Tonkin,' 1899. In 

 addition to these larger works were many important papers in various 

 scientific journals. 



