346 Obituary. [Ibis, 



XX. — Obituary. 



John Kirk. 



The death of Sir Jolm Kirk, G.C.M.G., F.R.S., which took 

 place on the 15th of Januai^y last at his home at Sevenoaks, 

 removes from our midst one of the most distinguished of 

 the men of British birth who during the last century opened 

 up the interior of Africa and added large areas of that con- 

 tinent to the British Empire. Thongh never a member of 

 the Union, he did a good deal of work for ornithology, and 

 it is not meet that his death should pass unnoticed in the 

 pages of ' The Ibis.' 



Born in the manse at Barry, near Arbroath in Forfarshire, 

 on the 22nd of December, 1832, he was the second sou of the 

 Rev. John Kirk of Arbirlot. He was educated at Arbroath 

 and at Edinburgh University, wliere he graduated M.D. and 

 L.R.C.S. in 1854. His love of natural history was early 

 developed, and he was already a botanist of considerable 

 note. In 1855 he served for a time under the War Office, 

 and was assistant physician at a hospital at Kenkioi on the 

 Dardanelles, to wl)ich many of the sick and wounded from 

 the Crimea were sent. In 1858 he was appointed physician 

 and naturalist to Livingstone's second expedition. He soon 

 became Chief Officer under Livingstone and spent five years 

 exploring the lower reaches of the Zambesi, and with his 

 chief was the discoverer of Lake Nyasa and Lake Shirwa, 

 and with him became the founder of the present Protectorate 

 of Nyasaland. He returned home in 1863, and spent some 

 time at Kew ideutifying and describing liis botanical 

 collections. The birds collected during these five years 

 were described by himself in 'The Ibis ' (1864, pp. 307-339), 

 while another collection made in the Comoro Islands was 

 enumerated by Dr. P. L. Sclater in the same volume 

 (pp. 292-301) and included a number of valuable notes 

 from Dr. Kirk as he then was. 



In 1866 Kirk was appointed acting-surgeon to the political 



