°'i9ii J Notes and News. 387 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Henry A. Purdie, a Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union, 

 died in Boston, Mass., March 30. 1911. 



Mr. Purdie was not only one of the Founders of the American Ornitholo- 

 gists' Union, but one of the original members of the Nut tall Ornithological 

 Club of Cambridge, which was organized in 1873, to which for many years 

 he rendered devoted service as its secretary, and was for many years a 

 frequent contributor to its 'Bulletin,' and later to its successor 'The Auk.' 



By those who knew Mr. Purdie intimately he will ever be most affection- 

 ately remembered, for few men were so sincere, conscientious and self- 

 sacrificing in their friendships. His contributions to ornithology had 

 reference mainly to the birds of New England, respecting which he was 

 long recognized as a competent authority. His relations with the members 

 of the Xuttall Club were intimate and sustained until the end. It is hence 

 exceedingly fitting that the President of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union has selected his intimate and life-long friend. Mr. William Brewster, 

 to prepare the memorial of his life and work, to be read at the next Stated 

 Meeting of the Union and published later in 'The Auk.' 



George Ernest Shelley, a Corresponding Member of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union, died in London, November 29, 1910, after a long 

 illness, at the age of 70 years. He was born in 1840, the son of John 

 Shelley of Hants, and a nephew of the famous English poet, P. B. Shelley. 

 He was privately educated in England and at the Lycee de Versailles in 

 France. In 1863 he joined the Grenadier Guards, retiring a few years 

 later with the rank of Captain. Shortly after he was sent by the Govern- 

 ment to South Africa as a member of a geological commission to make a 

 survey of that region, but his interests were soon diverted to ornithology, 

 to which he became enthusiatically devoted during the remainder of his 

 life. His first ornithological papers appeared in 'The Ibis' in 1870, and, 

 like most of his numerous subsequent ornithological writings, related to 

 African birds. His principal works are a ' Handbook to the Birds of Egypt' 

 (1872), 'Monograph of the Nectarinidse, or Family of the Sun-birds' 

 (1876-1880), Catalogues of the Families Indicatoridse, Capitonidse, Cucu- 

 lida 3 , and Musophagidse, in Volume XIX of the British Museum 'Cata- 

 logue of Birds' (1891), and 'Birds of Africa,' the first volume of which 

 appeared in 1896, followed by Volumes II (1900), III (1902), IV (1905), 

 and Part I of Volume V (1906). ' In 1906, a stroke of paralysis brought 



1 Notices of his ' Birds of South Africa ' appeared in this journal as follows: Vol. 

 XVIII, 1901, pp. 122. 123; XIX, 1902, p. 414; XXII, 1905, pp. 228, 332; XXIII, 

 1906, p. 353. 



