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THE LATE DU. J. WIGLESWORTH. 



The news of the tragic death of Joseph Wiglesworth, which 

 occurred on May i6th last, came as a great shock to many, 

 and the science of ornithology has lost a most devoted adherent. 

 From the naturalist's point of view, he may be said to have 

 died in harness, as he met his death while investigating the 

 possible site of an eyrie of Peregrine Falcons near Porlock 

 in Somerset. He left Porlock Weir alone on the morning of 

 the i6th, but as no one witnessed the accident, it is impossible 

 to say exactly what occurred ; the evidence, however, tended 

 to show that he was killed by a fall, the body being discovered 

 on the shore two days later. 



Joseph Wiglesworth was born in 1853, and was of high 

 medical distinction. He was a Doctor of Medicine of London 

 and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and had been 

 medical superintendent at Rainhill County Asylum, near Liver- 

 pool, for thirty years. He became a Member of the British 

 Ornithologists' Union in 1898 and joined the Somerset 

 Archaeological and Natural History Society in 1914. Of 

 the Ornithological section of this Society he became Recorder 

 in 1915, and on the death of Lord St. Audries (first presi- 

 dent of the section) Dr. Wiglesworth succeeded to the office 

 in 1918, his enthusiasm for the welfare of the section being 

 unbounded. Dr. Wiglesworth's published writings on birds 

 were not voluminous, and perhaps on this accoimt his great 

 field-knowledge of our birds was not generally realized. 



On October 13th, 1899, he delivered his Presidential address 

 before the Liverpool Biological Society, the subject of which 

 was " Flightless Birds," and in Vol. XV. (1901) of the 

 Transactions of the same Society appeared an article by him 

 entitled " Notes on the Spread of the Fulmar." 



In the summer of 1902 he visited St. Kilda and spent three 

 weeks on the island, and on his return delivered a most 

 interesting lecture before the Liverpool Biological Society on 

 the ornithological results of the expedition. This lecture 

 has been reprinted in book form from the Transactions of the 

 Society, and being of very great merit, deserves to be more 

 widely known. 



Readers of British Birds are acquainted with several short 

 notes, chiefly on rare birds in Somerset, which have appeared 

 from his pen in this periodical. 



Dr. Wiglesworth had a magnificent collection of books on 

 birds in his library, which he had got together at great expense 



