( 291 ) 

 THE LATE G. E. H. BARRETT-HAMILTON. 



■Gerald Edwin Hamilton Barrett-Hamilton, born 1871, 

 B.A. Cambridge 1894 (first-class in the Natural Science 

 Tripos in the same list A^dth his friend Dr. E. A. Wilson), 

 Major 5th (Militia) Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, in which 

 he served during the South African AVar, Hon. Captain 

 in the Armj^, F.Z.S., M.R.I.A., though principally known 

 as a mammalogist, was also an ornithologist, but as the 

 bulk of his contributions to ornithology appeared in the 

 pages of the Irish Naturalist, he Avas probably not so 

 AA-ell knoAA-n to English ornithologists as he deserved to be. 

 Without attempting a complete list, there are communi- 

 cations on birds from him in the Ibis for 1895-97-98, 

 1900-02, and Bull. B.O.G., 1898 (LI. and LIIL), etc. His most 

 ■enduring memorial A\'ill be A History of British Mammals, 

 appearmg m parts, of AA'hich, unfortunately, not much more 

 than half is yet published. 



In October last, accompanied by an assistant from the 

 Natural History Museum, South Kensington, he started to 

 South Georgia (the captain of the ship being an old 

 Norwegian AA'haluig friend of the A\riter's of nearly thirty 

 years ago) on a mission from the Colonial Office, to investigate 

 and report on the AAiialing, sealing, and " penguining " 

 ■carried on there, and also to investigate and report on, and 

 to form a collection of, the fauna of the island for the Natural 

 History Museum. After a passage of thirty-five days he 

 landed there, and found himself surrounded by several most 

 interesting species of birds and beasts. The Aveather he 

 ■described to the present AA'riter as bright and sunny, alter- 

 natmg AAdth snoAv-storms. Each morning that a AA^iale Avas 

 in he AAras doAvn at the slip by 6 a.m., and he AA-as hopmg 

 to leave on his long passage homcAVards toAA-ards the end 

 •of February, but on January 17th he died, apparently almost 

 suddenly, from heart failure. It took a Avhaler a Aveek to 

 reach the Falkland Islands, AA'hence a cablegram, lackmg 

 as usual ah, details, took another week to arrive at the 

 Colonial Office. His body is being brought home in the 

 AA^'haler " OrAvell," due at Liverpool about February 27th, 

 and AviU be taken on thence to his home in co. Wexford, 

 AA'here his AvidoAv and six little children sadly aAA"ait it. 



The necessity for the punctual publication of British 

 Birds is the reason for the brevity of this utterly inadequate 

 notice of a friend AA'ho deserved the very best that could 

 have been AA^ritten. Alfred Heneage Cocks. 



