Obituary. 137 



EiCHARD John Ussher. 



We regret to have to record the death, which took place iu 

 a private hospital in Dublin on the 12th of November o£ last 

 year^ of Mr. Ussher, of Cappagh, Co. Waterford, well known 

 to most of ns as our chief authority on Irish Birds, and a 

 member of our Union. 



Born in 1841, Mr. Ussher was brought up as a country 

 gentleman, and was a leading member of a family which had 

 been connected with County Waterford for a long period. 

 His great-grandfather, Capt. Arthur Ussher, served in 

 Marlborough^s army, and his father, Mr. Bichard Ussher, 

 was a well-known magistrate, who, in the early part of the 

 nineteenth century, showed great energy and capacity in 

 dealing with the disorders of the times in his district, and 

 received the thanics of government for his services. 



Though best known as an ornithologist, Ussher was 

 interested in other fields of knowledge. He was a keen 

 student ,of archaeology, and was also' given to the explor- 

 ation of caves, especially that of Castle Book near Doneraile, 

 where he discovered the remains of the hysena and other 

 extinct animals, by which he added largely to our knowledge 

 of the early forms of life in Ireland. 



He became a member of the Union in 1894, and in 1900, 

 in conjunction with Bobert Warren, he published a work on 

 ' The Birds of Ireland ' (reviewed in ' Ibis,' 1901, p. 147), the 

 first general account of Irish birds published since 1851, 

 when Thompson's 'Natural History of Ireland' appeared, 

 and which has since remained the standard work on the 

 subject. In 1908 he brought the Irish records up to date 

 in a little brochure, ' A list of Irish Birds/ published as a 

 Guide-book to the bird-collections in the Museum of 

 Science and Art, Dublin. 



All Ussher's shorter papers on birds relate to those of 

 Ireland, and are to be found in the pages of the ' Irish 

 Naturalist' or of 'British Birds.' Though at one time 

 an extensive collector of birds' eggs, he became later on 



