Obituary. 687 



between the British and Liverpool Museums, while the 

 Birds of Prey are at the Norwich Museum. 



lu 1888 he was chosen an Honorary Member of tlie 

 B.O. U., and about the time of his death he was, Avith the 

 exception of Prof. Finsch, the oldest on the list. 



Thoug-h Ayres was not what would be called nowadays 

 a scientific ornithologist, his notes show that he was a keen 

 and excellent observer, and he was certainly a good collector. 

 The papers on the avifauna of Natal and the Transvaal form 

 the basis of our knowledge of the birds of those regions 

 and have been largely drawu upon by all subsequent writers. 



Jan Willem Boudewyn Gunning. 



Dr. Gunning, who had only this year been elected a 

 Member of the Union, died rather suddenly on the 23rd of 

 June last at his residence at Pretoria. 



He Avas born at Hilversum in Holland on the 3rd of 

 September, 1860, and was educated at the Universities of 

 Amsterdam, Leyden, and Jena, taking the degree of M.D. at 

 the last-named. He went to South Africa in 1884 and 

 practised medicine in the Orange Free State until 1892, 

 when he was appointed Director of the newly formed 

 Museum at Pretoria. Here his energy and enthusiasm 

 found full scope, and he not only established and built up 

 the Museum but founded the Zoological Gardens, of which 

 he was also made Director. 



Dr. Gunning was one of the most prominent supporters 

 of the South African Ornithologists' Union from its first 

 start. He was a Vice-President and, for the three years 

 previous to his death, the President of that body. His 

 scientific publications include several papers containing 

 descriptions of new South African birds, and, in conjunction 

 with Mr. A. Haagner, he prepared a check-list of the birds 

 of South Africa which was issued in 1910 as a special 

 supplement of the ' Annals of the Transvaal Museum.' 



An enthusiastic and untiring worker in the cause of his 

 Museum and Zoological Gardens, Dr. Gunning's premature 

 death is a great loss to zoological science in South Africa. 



