Letters, Extracts, Notices, t$c. 271 



Jose Arevalo y Baca. — With most sincere sorrow, Lord 

 Lilford writes to us, I announce the death of my esteemed 

 friend Don Jose Arevalo y Baca, Professor of Zoology in the 

 University of Valencia, who died on January 9th ult. of the 

 prevalent epidemic complicated by affection of the lungs, in 

 his 44th year. His memoir on the Birds of Spain, published 

 in 1887 *, is, so far as I know, the only one that has hitherto 

 appeared on the ornithology of the whole Iberian Peninsula, 

 and although not devoid of error, is a work of very con- 

 siderable merit and much laborious research. In judging 

 of this book, English ornithologists must take into considera- 

 tion not only the very meagre salaries of Spanish University 

 Professors, but also the very scanty supply of modern works 

 of zoological reference that are accessible to them. In the 

 case of Sefior Arevalo these difficulties were aggravated by 

 delicate health, and his untimely death has left a void in the 

 ranks of European ornithologists that will not easily be 

 rilled up. 



Mr. Edward Thomas Booth, the founder and owner of 

 the well-known " Dyke Road Museum " of British Birds at 

 Brighton, died on the 8th of February last. Mr. Booth was 

 born at Chalfont St. Giles, in Buckinghamshire, on June 2nd, 

 1839, the only child of his father, Mr. Edward Booth, of 

 Marina, St. Leonards, by Miss Beaumont, of a well-known 

 Northumberland family. He was educated at Harrow and 

 Trinity College, Cambridge. Mr. Booth learnt bird-stuffing 

 when a boy, from Kent, the well-known bird-stuffer of Has- 

 tings, and, ccmmencing at an early period in life, spent the 

 greater part of his time in the field, studying our native birds 

 in their haunts in every part of the United Kingdom, and 

 collecting and preserving the specimens that fell to his gun. 

 These specimens were mounted in an artistic way, each species 

 in a separate case, with objects and painted backgrounds so 

 arranged as to represent the birds in situations similar to 



* Aves de Espana. — Memoria premiada con accesit per la Real 

 Academia de Cienciaa Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales en elconcurso publico 

 de 1882 escrita por 1>. Jote Aievalo y Baca. 4to. Madrid, 1887. 



