306 Obituary. [Ibis, 



His second journey to the Pacific in 1884-6 was of a 

 more dramatic nature. The peaceful bird-collector became 

 Bismarck's Imperial Commissioner, and it was through his 

 efforts and negotiations that the northern portion of New 

 Guinea together with New Britain and Ireland became 

 German territory, and were renamed Kaiser Willielm's 

 Land and the Bismarck Archipelago. Finsch's own name 

 is recorded in Finsch Hafen, the capital of the Colony. 



From 1886 to 1897 Finsch lived near Bremen, working 

 out liis South Seas collections and specially his ethno- 

 graphical material, while he published an account of his 

 momentous journey in 1888 under the title " Samoa 

 Fahrten/' an allusion to the name of the vessel in which 

 he travelled out to the islands. He returned to Leyden as 

 Curator of the bird collections of the Rijk-Museum in 1898, 

 having been appointed to succeed Biittikofer, and in 1904 

 he went back to Germany as Curator of the Ethnographical 

 section of the Municipal Museum at Brunswick, a post 

 which he held until his death. 



In addition to the larger works, the most important of 

 which have been already mentioned, Finsch published a 

 large number of papers in 'The Ibis,' the 'Journal fiir 

 Oruitliologie/ and in many other periodicals. His publi- 

 cations number over 150. He described 14 new genera 

 and 155 new species of birds, while 24 bear his name, as 

 well as tnau}^ other animals and plants discovered during 

 his travels. 



A complete account of his travels and of his literary and 

 scientific activity will be found in a little volume published 

 at Berlin in 1899 under the title 'Otto Finsch: Syste- 

 matische Uebersicht der Ergebnisse seiner Keisen und 

 schriftstellerischen Thatigkeit (1859-1899).' 



His work in ornithology was entirely systematic, and it 

 was accurate and reliable, but during the last twelve years 

 he had given up the study of birds for ethnology, so that his 

 name is not so well known among the younger workers 

 in ornithology, but he was one of the best of the old school 

 of German workers. 



