277 
gn Memoriam. 
JOHN CORDEAUX. 
By the death of John Cordeaux this journal loses one of its oldest 
and most valued contributors; Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, a 
distinguished naturalist; and British ornithology, a leading 
authority. 
He was born in the year 1831 at Foston Rectory, Leicester-. 
shire ; and was the eldest son of the Rev. John Cordeaux, M.A., 
rector of Hooton Roberts, Yorkshire. He died in his 69th year 
at his residence, Great Cotes House, on the 1st August 1899, 
after a short but painful illness. 
a young man he went to live at Great Cotes, on the 
Hincolashive bank of the Humber Estuary, and here he made’ 
for half-a-century those interesting and valuable observations 
on birds and their migratory movements which have not only 
made his name familiar to all British ornithologists, but also to 
those of Europe and America. These records were contributed 
to the pages of the ‘ Zoologist,’ ‘ Naturalist,’ ‘ Field,’ and other 
natural history publications and Transactions. In the year 1873, 
Mr. Cordeaux published his ‘ Birds of the Humber District ’— 
a book teeming with original observations on the birds resident 
and migratory of the district whic ad made so pre- 
eminently his own. Quite recently—indeed it was his very last 
published work—he issued ‘A List of British Birds belonging 
to the Humber District,’ in which he brought the information 
relating to this remarkable region down to date, and wherein no 
less than 322 species are enumerated, with brief particulars of 
their occurrence. 
_ It is, perhaps, in connection with the interesting phenomenon 
of the migrations of our British birds that Mr. Cordeaux has 
come most into prominence. He was practically the founder of 
that elaborate and exhaustive enquiry which was undertaken by 
the British Association in 1880, in which year a committee of 
experts was appointed to investigate the subject of bird migra- 
tion as observed on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. To — 
this end the various light-houses and light-vessels were supplied 
with schedules on which the various movements and occurrences 
of birds were recorded by the light-keepers. This work of 
collecting data (as well as of reporting annually on the results 
obtained) was carried on for a period of eight years, and the 
mass of information thus obtained was so vast that much of 
x ne neice) obtained is still under consideration, although the 
