Letters, Extracts, Notices, S^c. 191 



in North-west Canada^ and in the following year he published 

 a narrative of his adventurous expeditions up the river Yang- 

 tsze^ for which he received the gold medal of the Royal 

 Geographical Society. He then settled at Hakodadi^ in the 

 north island of Japan, and devoted much attention to the 

 Birds of Yesso, discovering many new species, writing various 

 papers which appeared in this Journal, the ^ Chrysan- 

 themum/ and the ' Transactions of the Asiatic Society of 

 Japan/ arid sending small collections of new or rare birds 

 to Mr. Swinhoe, and, after the death of that distinguished 

 ornithologist, to Mr. Seebohm. In conjunction with Mr. 

 Harry Pryer of Yokohama, Captain Blakiston succeeded in 

 adding more than a hundred species of birds to the avifauna 

 of Japan. A few years ago Captain Blakiston removed, 

 from Hakodadi to the United States, and took up his resi- 

 dence at London in Ohio, and quite lately, we believe, in New 

 Mexico. His last ornithological paper was an essay on the 

 " Water-Birds of Japan,''^ published in the ' Proceedings of 

 the United States National Museum.' 



Friedrich Wilhelm Meves, or Wilhelm Meves (as he 

 always signed himself), who died suddenly at Stockholm on 

 the 9tli of April last, the son of a Pastor, was born at Del- 

 lingsen, in the Duchy of Brunswick, on the 14tli April, 

 1814. With him, as with many other celebrated naturalists, 

 the taste for natural history was developed at a very early 

 age, for when only eleven years old he commenced to form 

 a collection of birds. When Meves was only thirteen years 

 of age he lost his father, and was adopted by an uncle. 

 Pastor Luder. Two years later he was apprenticed to a 

 chemist. In 1840 he went to Kiel, where he entered the 

 University as a student, and soon obtained an appointment 

 in the Kiel Museum. Here he became acquainted with Fr. 

 Boie, in whom he found a firm friend. Professor Sundevall 

 visited Kiel in 1841, and having formed a high opinion of 

 Meves^s talents as a naturalist, and especially as a skilful 

 taxidermist, offered him the post of '^ Conservator '^ at the 

 Stockholm Museum, which was accepted in 1842. At 

 Stockholm Meves remained and worked, until he was pen- 



