Obituary. 475 



increased^ and the accommodation provided for housing thera 

 has been greatly improved. Among the most important new 

 houses may be mentioned the large aviary for Waders and 

 Gulls, the Small-birds' House, and a fine new house for the 

 large Carnivora. The botanical collection has also been 

 considerably increased, and many fine glasshouses have been 

 erected under Van Bemmeleu\s directorship. 



Van Bemmelen was an excellent field-naturalist, and many 

 were the specimens which he collected in the neighbourhood 

 of Leiden to enrich the Native-Fauna Collection of the Mu- 

 seum. The results of his observations wei'e mostly published 

 in Dutch scientific periodicals, especially in the ' Bouwstoffen 

 van een Fauna van Nederland/ where he gave^ among other 

 contributions, lists of the fishes, mammals, and reptiles of the 

 Netherlands. He also wrote many interesting articles on the 

 birds of his native country, on the migration of insects, and 

 on the animals that had lived in the Rotterdam Zoological 

 Gardens. Dr. Finsch, at the end of the preface to his cele- 

 brated monograph of the Parrots, writes : — 



" Zum Schluss moge mir mein lieber Freund und friiherer 

 College am Leidener Reichs-Museum, Herr A. A. van Bem- 

 melen, gestatten ihm den aufrichtigsten Dank ofi'entlich 

 auszusprechen, fiir die wichtigen Aufschliisse iibcr einzelne 

 Arten und Exemplare des Leidener Museums." 



Van Bemmelen died suddenly on the 8th January, 1897. 

 His successor as Director of the Rotterdam Zoological 

 Gardens is Dr. J. Biittikofer, lately Assistant at the Leideti 

 Zoological Museum, and well known to many of us. 



Sir Edward Newton, M.A., K.C.M.G., F.L.S., C.M.Z.S.— 

 By the death of Sir Edward Newton the British Orni- 

 thologists' Union has lost another of its founders and 

 original Members, one of the eight who formulated the idea 

 of the Union and of ' The Ibis,' and who combined to make 

 the original twenty, to which number the B.O.U. was for 

 some time strictly limited. Edward, the youngest son of 

 William Newton, Esq., formerly M.P. for Ipswich, was born 

 at his father's seat, Elveden Hall, Norfolk, on the 10th of 



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