MEMOIR OP PROFESSOR HUXLEY. 263 



spring; but strange to say, the specimen which has just been 

 received by me from Bishops Waltham, Essex, was forwarded 

 with the information that " it was there last season as well as this, 

 and was often heard to sing ' cuckoo.' " 



To explain these three cases we must assume either that the 

 Cuckoo, from some unknown cause, may live for several years 

 without moulting, which is not likely ; or that it is dimorphous 

 like the Crow ;* or again, that observers, on seeing red Cuckoos 

 year after year in the same locality, must have been mistaken in 

 supposing that they were the same individual birds which had 

 returned to their former haunts. Of course, if they were not the 

 same birds, we are forced to the conclusion that red Cuckoos in 

 spring are not so rare as has been commonly supposed. 



Referring again to what I wrote in 1866 of the only two 

 examples then known to me, I find the remark, " They were both 

 females, and I believe an adult male of this colour has never been 

 obtained." Evidently at that date I had not read Temminck's 

 statement that he had dissected red Cuckoos of both sexes, nor 

 were Messrs. Dresser and Seebohm, apparently, aware of this 

 fact when they published their respective works. Verily we live 

 to learn. 



MEMOIE OF PBOFESSOR HUXLEY. 



With the departure from our midst of the Rt. Hon. Thomas 

 Henry Huxley, LL.D., F.R.S., a shining light has gone out in 

 the world of science. On the 29th June, at Eastbourne, he 

 passed peacefully away, in the 70th year of his age. His death 

 cannot be said to have been unexpected, for the state of his health 

 for some time past had been such as to cause grave anxiety to his 

 friends. Early in the year he had been stricken with influenza, 

 and complications followed affecting the kidneys and heart, from 

 which it soon became evident there was but little hope of recovery. 

 Conscious to the last, he set a brave example of that composure 

 and fortitude which is never more impressive than when displayed 

 by one who is conscious of his approaching end. 



For the last ten years he may be said to have practically 

 retired from active life, having been compelled in 1885, through 



Cf. Newton, in Yarrell's 'British Birds,' vol. ii. p. 274. 



