1918.] Obituary. 497 



on comparative anatomy. He was shortly afterwards 

 appointed an Assistant in the Zoological Museum at Turin, 

 M'here he remained two years ; he subsequently held various 

 teaching posts under the Minister of Public Instruction at 

 Sassari, Pistoja, Rome, and Milan. 



The collection of birds, consisting of over 20,000 mounted 

 specimens amassed by Count Ercole Turati, who died in 

 1881 {vide Ibis, 1881, p. 608), subsequently became the 

 property of the Civic Museum at Milan, and in 1893 

 Martorelli was appointed Director of the Turati collection 

 in the Museum, a post which he held until his death. 



Most of Martorelli's publications in ornithology deal with 

 the specimens in the Turati collection and Italian birds, and 

 he was one of the collaborators with the late Prof. Giglioli 

 in the Italian Ornithological Inquiry which commenced in 

 1885, and resulted in the publication of a series of volumes 

 {' Avifauna Italica ') well known to students of Palsearctic 

 ornithology. One of his most important works was his 

 ' Monografia illustrata degli Uccelli di Rapino in Italia,' 

 published in 1895, in which he monographed the Italian 

 Birds of Prey ; this was perhaps his favourite group, 

 and he contributed many observations on the complicated 

 and difficult plumage-changes and plumage-phases of these 

 birds. 



Other important papers are on the pattern of the plumage 

 of birds — ' Le Forme e le Simmetria delle Macchie nel 

 Piuraaggio ' ; on Dichroism in Herons — ' Nota ornitologica 

 sopra VArdeula ida (Hartlaub) e cenno sul dicroismo di 

 varii Ardeidi'; while in 1906 he published a fine illustrated 

 work on the Birds of Italy, ' Gli uccelli d'ltalia/ with 

 full descriptions of 463 species, illustrated with many 

 reproductions of photographs and six coloured plates {vide 

 Ibis, 1907, p. 209) . 



To our own pages he contributed in 1897 a short paper 

 on the plumage-changes of a Lory (Eos fuscata) as exhibited 

 by specimens in the Turati collection. 



Martorelli was much interested in hybrids and variations 

 as well as in bird-protection and the problems of migration, 



