Obituary. 609 



1838, and, on completing his studies at the Gymnasium and 

 Academy there, proceeded to Zurich and afterwards to the 

 Universities of Berlin and Leipzig. At Leipzig he was a 

 pupil of Dubois Reymond, and obtained his Doctorship in 

 Philosophy by his thesis " De Avium corpore pneumatico." 

 After accomplishing his term of military service Fatio was 

 laid prostrate by a serious attack of typhus, the effect of which 

 was a complete loss of memory. This obliged him to re- 

 commence his studies, which he did with great zeal, passing 

 a year at Paris, under the guidance of Henri Milne-Edwards, 

 in the Museums and Laboratories of the Jardin des Plantes. 

 Returning to Geneva in 1862 he thenceforth devoted himself 

 to the Natural History of his native country. Associated 

 with Henri de Saussure and other savants, he was long and 

 deeply engaged in the study of the Phylloxera, and was for 

 nineteen years President of the Federal Commission on that 

 important subject sitting at Berne. Amongst these and 

 many similar occupations, however, he never forgot his 

 favourite birds, being President of the" SocieteOrnithologique 

 Suisse/' and representing his country at the Ornithological 

 Congresses of Vienna, Budapest, Paris, and London. 



In his labours on the birds of Switzerland, Fatio was 

 closely associated with Prof. Studer of Berne, and in con- 

 junction with him prepared and published a Catalogue of 

 Swiss Birds ( f Katalog des Schweizerischen Vogel, Catalogue 

 des Oiseaux de la Suisse '), which appeared in three parts in 

 1889, 1894, and 1901. But a still more important work is 

 the ' Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux/ which forms two volumes 

 of Fatio's ' Faune des Vertebres de la Suisse/ and is the 

 most complete and trustworthy account of the birds of 

 Switzerland. The first volume of this work was issued in 

 1899, the second, lately noticed by us (' Ibis,' 1905, p. 120), 

 in 1904. 



Fatio was elected a Foreign Member of the British 

 Ornithologists' Union in 1872, and a Corresponding Member 

 of the Zoological Society of London in 1897. His learning 

 and industry were much appreciated all over the Continent ; 

 he was made a Commander of the Royal Order of Christ of 



ser. viii. — vol. vi. 2r 



