80 G Obituary. 



the collection of prepared skins is gradually growing. The 

 rest of his day is devoted to working up sketches and zoo- 

 logical notesj making those delightful drawings for the 8outh 

 Polar Times without which that publication would lose much 

 of its excellence^ and performing a hundred and one kindly 

 offices for all on board." 



"Wilson was the author of the descriptions of the birds 

 and mammals in the official report on the natural history 

 results of Scott's first expedition to the Antarctic (National 

 Antarctic Expedition. Natural History, vol. ii.^ Yertebrata, 

 Aves). The volume, which was published by the Trustees of 

 the British Museum in 1907, is illustrated by some very 

 beautiful pictures drawn and coloured by Wilson, and con- 

 tains an account of his personal experiences and observations 

 during the expedition. Evidence of his unusual abilities, not 

 only as a field-naturalist and accurate observer, but also as an 

 artist are fully demonstrated in this volume. It is of sad 

 interest to note that copies of the last volume (the sixth) 

 of this report, issued last year, were sent out to Scott and 

 Wilson by the ' Terra Nova.' It would have pleased both 

 of them to know that this monumental work had been 

 brought to a close before the arrival of the fresh harvest of 

 natural history specimens, which we may expect by the 

 ' Terra Nova.' 



Wilson on the first expedition visited a nesting colony of the 

 Emperor Penguin, and the eggs of that bird brought home by 

 the ' Discovery •* were the first specimens seen in any Museum. 



He was then able to furnish an account of how the egg and 

 chick are carried about and kept off the ice by being supported 

 on the feet of the parent, and protected by a fold or lappet of 

 heavily-feathered skin descending from the abdomen, which 

 could not, in his opinion, be accurately described as a 

 "pouch.'' His lecture on the "^^ Life-history of the Emperor 

 Penguin {Aptenudytes forsteri)," delivered at the Royal 

 Institution on the 27th of January, 1905, was a most enter- 

 taining and altogether delightful discourse; his quiet sense 

 of fun and humour infusing a charm and lightness to his 

 handling of the most scientific facts. An abstract of this 

 lecture appeared in ' The Ibis,' 1905, p. 291. A year earlier, 



