156 Obituary. [Ibis, 



previous year become a Corresponding Fellow of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union, but he was never a 

 member of the Royal Australian Ornithologists^ Union 

 as he had no faith in the work of his amateur contem- 

 poraries. This feeling was so strong that it detracted from 

 the value of his work, as, rather than incorporate anything 

 in his writings that he deemed doubtful, he ignored the 

 work of most of his fellow Australians. 



It was in the matter of the detailed study of the life- 

 history of those birds especially which occur in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Sydney that his best work was done, and his 

 neglect of modern methods in nomenclature and taxonomy 

 in no way detract from the value of these observations, 

 and in many respects he was one of the best ornithologists 

 that Australia has yet produced. 



Cecil Godfrey Rawling. 



Though not a member of the Union, the death of 

 Brigadier-General Rawling, CLE., C.M.G., by a casual 

 shell on the 28th of October, 1917, on the western front 

 cannot be passed over without notice in these pages. 



Born in 1870 and educated at Clifton, Bawling received 

 his first commission in the Somerset Light Infantry and 

 proceeded immediately to India. He had a passion for 

 high mountains and the exploration of the waste places in 

 the world, and in 1903 he mapped over 40,000 square miles 

 on the Tibetan border. He was an invaluable member 

 of the Tibetan expedition of the following year, so that, 

 when the Jubilee Expedition of the B. O. U. to explore the 

 snow mountains of Dutch New Guinea was proposed and 

 organized by Mr. Ogilvie-Grant under the leadership of 

 My. W. Goodfellow in 1909, Captain Bawling (as he then 

 was) was asked to go as Surveyor of the expedition on 

 behalf of the Boyal Geographical Society. On the return 

 of Mr. Goodfellow through illness Bawling was appointed 

 leader of the party, and though they failed to climb 

 Mt. Cartensz they discovered a new pigmy race of natives 

 and made very valuable collections in all branches of 



