138 Obituary. 



a great upholder of the strict preservation of the Irish 

 avifauna. 



His death is a great loss to Irish ornithology, and will be 

 deplored by all who have had the pleasure of his personal 

 acquaintance. 



William John Ansorge. 



Though not a member of our Union, we cannot allow the 

 death of Dr. Ansorge, which took place at Loanda, in 

 Angola, on October 31 last, to pass without a short notice. 



Dr. Ansorge was born in Bengal in 1850, and was the 

 son of the late Rev. G. P. Ansorge, of the Church Missionary 

 Society. After being educated at Mauritius and at Pem- 

 broke College, Cambridge, he became a Professor at the 

 Eoyal College, Mauritius, a position which he held till 1886. 

 He then came to England to study medicine, and after 

 obtaining his qualification was appointed a District Medical 

 Officer in Uganda in 1892. While there he made large 

 collections of birds and other animals, and an account of the 

 former, which are now in the Tring Museum, appeared as an 

 appendix, prepared by Dr. Hartert, to his well-known work 

 ' Under the African Sun,' published in 1899, where a vivid 

 account of his experiences and his zoological discoveries in 

 British East Africa and Uganda was embodied. In 1899 

 he crossed the continent of Africa from east to west, and 

 later on was district medical officer in Nigeria; in this 

 capacity he took part in the Aro expedition, receiving a 

 medal and clasp. He retired from the service shortly after 

 this, but he could not give up travelling and collecting, and 

 he spent most of his remaining years wandering in different 

 parts of Africa. 



The British Museum contains a large collection of Angola 

 birds made by him in 1905 and 1908-9, and also a collection 

 made in Portuguese Guinea on his way home in 1909, and 

 many new species and subspecies bear his name. He also 

 collected largely in other groups, especially in mammals and 

 freshwater fishes. 



