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EDGAR LEOPOLD LAYARD, C.M.G., F.Z.S., &c. 



By EDWARD COLLIER. 



(Read before the Society, April nth, 1900). 



By the death of Edgar Leopold Layard Natural History has lost an 

 enthusiastic worker, and one who had very great opportunities of 

 which he took full advantage. He died at his residence "Otterbourne," 

 Budleigh Salterton, S. Devon, very early in the morning of Monday, 

 the first of January, in his seventy-sixth year. Through his death we 

 lose one of the few remaining links that connect us with the natura- 

 lists of the past generation. 



His father was Henry P. J. Layard, who held a very high position 

 in the Indian Civil Service in Ceylon. He had three brothers, the 

 eldest being the Rt. Hon. Austen Henry Layard, the discoverer of 

 Nineveh, and Ambassador at Madrid and Constantinople. The second 

 was General Frederick Layard of the Indian Army; and the third 

 Captain Arthur Layard, who died in the Crimea, whilst on Lord 

 Raglan's staff. 



Edgar Leopold Layard was the fourth son, and was born at Florence 

 in July, 1824, and began his natural history work very early in life, 

 as he well remembered collecting snails in the Boboli Gardens at 

 Florence whilst quite a child. He went to Cambridge and was edu- 

 cated for the Church, but could not conscientiously sign the thirty-nine 

 Articles, so studied for the Law. He married at the early age of 

 twenty-one and left immediately for Ceylon, having received an 

 appointment in the Civil Service, and rose to be Sheriff and Magi- 

 strate of the Point Pedro district. Here he had a splendid opportunity 

 of following his taste for natural history in all its branches, as he not 

 only collected land, freshwater, and marine shells, but worked at other 

 branches as well. He was always extremely fond of birds and his 

 extensive collection included many species new to science. He made 

 a catalogue of the birds of Ceylon, and considerably helped the late 

 Sir Emerson Tennant in writing his great work on that island. I 

 remember very well his describing to me the locality where he dis- 

 covered a new species of Cataidus (C. layardi Gray). 



After residing in Ceylon for nearly ten years, he and his wife were 

 forced to leave on account of ill health, when he came to England and 

 worked at the collections he had made in Ceylon. In 1855, ne went 

 to the Cape and there joined the Colonial office. Here he was soon 

 at work again in his favourite pursuits, and founded the present South 

 African Museum in Cape Town, and was Curator of it until 1870. 



