228 About Members. [,sfAprii 



Mathews is at present in Tasmania. From there he will proceed 

 to New South Wales and Queensland before returning to Britain, 

 vtii America, in July. Mr. Mathews was accompanied to Aus- 

 tralia by Mrs. Mathews and their sons, who remained on the 

 mail steamer until Sydney was reached. 



Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, of Washington, D.C., an honorary member 

 of the R.A.O.U., hopes, with Mrs. Shufeldt, to visit AustraHa 

 during the meeting of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science. Dr. Shufeldt has a world-wide fame as an 

 author and ornithologist. He was collaborator with the late 

 Professor Alfred Newton in the " Dictionary of Birds." He is 

 an unwearied and versatile writer in many branches of orni- 

 thology. In addition to the valuable articles on osteology which 

 he contributed to The Emu last year, he has written in Science 

 (N.S., vol. xxxvii., No. 947) on " New and Extinct Birds and Other 

 Species from the Pleistocene of Oregon," and a highly technical 

 paper, " On the Patella in the Phalacrocoracidse," which appeared 

 in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. On the 

 more popular side of ornithology Dr. Shufeldt contributed to the 

 Popular Science Monthly for November, 1913, an article on " The 

 National Zoological Garden." In the Outers' Book he continues 

 his pleasantly written articles (illustrated) on " American Grouse 

 and their Identification," and in that charming pubhcation, 

 " The Guide to Nature," he has written, with illustrations, on 

 " Some American Wild Fowl," &c., while The Auk, vol. xxx., 

 No. 2, p. 318, contains a sympathetic obituary notice of Professor 

 Robert Collett, of Christiania, from the pen of the talented doctor. 



Obituary Notice. 



The Ibis for October, 1913, contains a memoir of the late 

 Philip Lutley Sclater, D.Sc, F.R.S., by Mr. A. H. Evans. " Not 

 only was he of world-wide reputation for a long life's work," states 

 the writer, " but the various posts which he held at different 

 periods entitled him to be considered of late the head of that 

 branch of learning to which he was specially devoted, as well as 

 a great power in zoology generally. He always had the welfare 

 of ornithology at heart, and was not only ready but anxious to 

 further any project for its advancement, while his kindness and 

 consideration to all beginners who applied to him were equally 

 characteristic. The names of Bowdler Sharpe, Garrod, and W. A. 

 Forbes will at once occur to us in this connection, but these are 

 a mere drop in the ocean compared to the long list of all who have 

 owed their position or their reputation to his support, and those 

 of them who are still alive will have heard with the keenest regret 

 of his removal from our midst. It may, perhaps, be permitted 

 to the present writer here to strike a personal note by expressing 

 his own feehng of gratitude for all Dr. Sclater' s kindness towards 

 him, both in early life and while joint-editor with him of The Ibis, 



