XXX MEMOIR. 
previously warned him of. The diversity of his 
pursuits led him into many delays, each one of 
which no doubt contributed its share, together with 
the obstructiveness of native tribes, to that long 
detention on his journey which finally threw his 
visit to the Zambesi into the unhealthy season of 
the year. It must be granted, however, at the same 
time, that his love of adventure led him into places 
where the field for inquiry was especially inviting, 
and offered exceptional advantages ; and also that 
his devotion to natural history beguiled throughout 
his journey what might otherwise have proved many 
a weary march. It is more than probable — so fully 
had the need of this now been brought home to him 
— that on another journey, had he been spared to 
make one, he would have concentrated his chief 
energies upon fewer objects. What these might 
have been must remain, indeed, matter of conjecture; 
but whatever else he had abandoned, the pursuit of 
ornithology would certainly have held a place second 
only to that of exploration. 
In character and temperament Frank Oates was 
admirably fitted for his work. " I like anything," 
he once wrote when at Oxford, " that seems difficult 
of attainment," — the very zest of the pursuit proving 
in such cases its own reward to him. So too, in 
disposition ; he had just the one which recommends 
itself to strangers. " There was something singularly 
