Obituanj. 155 



" To recapitulate, then, we find the skull of Chionis mino?' 

 to be a veritable columbo-gallinaceous one, having strongly 

 impressed upon it other characters of some such form as 

 Hcematopus with traces here and there, as we might expect, 

 of larine structure/^ 



That the Sheath-bills present no such columbo-galli- 

 naceous picture as regards their skeletal structure amounts, 

 in my opinion, to a certainty. 



VI. — Obituary. 

 Richard Manliffe Barrington. 

 We share with all Irish naturalists our great regret at 

 tlie death of Mr. Barrington of Fassaroe, which took place 

 on September 15 last very suddenly, while driving his motor- 

 car home from Dublin. 



Born at Fassaroe, near Bray, in county Wicklow, on 

 May 22, 1849, Barrington was the eighth and youngest 

 son of Edward Barrington. He was educated at home 

 until he entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1866, where he 

 graduated with honours in 1870 as a Moderator in Experi- 

 mental and Natural Science. He was called to the bar, 

 but soon abandoned the practice of the law, preferring a 

 more open-air life as a land - valuer, and subsequently 

 managing his farm at Fassaroe. 



An admirable example of an all-round naturalist, he 

 will chiefly be remembered for his work on birds, and 

 especially the migrations of Irish birds ; but he also wrote 

 extensively on mammals as well as on botanical subjects. 



In 1880 he began his regular correspondence with the 

 Irish lighthouse keepers on the migration of birds. The 

 results of these observations were published in the form of 

 annual reports to the British Association for 1881-7. 



After 1887 Barrington continued, at great personal 

 expense, the issue of schedules to the light-stations of 

 Ireland for ten years longer, with the result that not merely 

 bald and often unsatisfactory records were furnished by the 

 light-keepers, but, in addition, over two thousand specimens, 



