650 Obituary. 



The following appreciations are communicated by Jolni 

 Graliam Kerr, F.R.S., Kegius Professor of Zoology at the 

 University of Glasgow, and Michael John Nicoll, Assistant- 

 Director of the Giza Zoological Gardens near Cairo, both of 

 whom received mnch help and encouragement from the 

 subject of our memoir : — 



The pre-eminent position occupied by P. L. Sclater as an 

 ornithologist, as the founder of the modern science of 

 zoogeograpliy, and as a general zoologist of extraordinarily 

 wide knowledge, has received full recognition, hut there is 

 another asjjcct of his work less generally known but in 

 which he wielded an important influence upon the progress 

 of biology — I refer to the constant help and encourage- 

 ment which he gave to young workers in zoological science. 



Young zoologists — the best of whom are simply carrying 

 on a loved hobby of their boyhood — arc, when they embark 

 upon the stream of serious investigation, [lerhaps more apt 

 than most types of scientific worker to be whirled away on 

 the stream of a particularly intense enthusiasm. They soon 

 find themselves amongst the difficulties of the most difficult 

 of all the sciences, and their initial enthusiasm becomes 

 damped. They are apt, either to give up the science alto- 

 gether, or to degenerate into mere collectors of '' unmitigated 

 fact." It is during this critical period in his career that the 

 naturalist needs to have by him some strong and kindly 

 friend. Such a friend in need to many a young enthusiast 

 was P. L. Sclater. 



Personally I owe much, perhaps more than most, to the 

 help and encouragement of a few strong and loyal friends, and 

 pre-eminent among these was Sclater : through his influence 

 I was enabled to accompany the Page Expedition of 1889-91 

 to the Pilcomayo River in Paraguay, and in that unexplored 

 region and amongst its wild Natokoi Indians, to undergo 

 an educative experience of the greatest value to a naturalist. 

 Later on it was mainly on his advice that I found myself at 

 Cambridge and at Christ's, and throughout my career there 



