92 THE ZOOLOGISTS 



THE LATE MR. E. T. BOOTH, OF BRIGHTON. 



To most of our readers, if not to all of them, the name of 

 Edward Thomas Booth will be perfectly familiar, as that of the 

 author of an important work on British Birds, and the owner of 

 one of the most remarkable private museums in this country. 

 No one who could afford the cost of an expensively illustrated 

 work like his ' Kough Notes on British Birds ' would be without a 

 book which abounds in original and accurate information; no 

 visitor to Brighton with any taste for Natural History would 

 miss seeing Mr. Booth's Museum in the Dyke Boad, fortunate 

 indeed if the owner happened to be there, to impart, in answer 

 to enquiry, some of that fund of information which he had spent 

 a lifetime in acquiring. 



We very much regret to know that our last visit to him 

 has been paid, and that we shall never again listen to that 

 cheeriest of companions, whose animated descriptions of his 

 shooting and fishing experiences were so entertaining and so 

 instructive. He died on the 8th February last, at the age of 

 fifty, and was buried, by his own desire, at Hastings in the same 

 vault in which his parents are laid. 



In some respects Mr. Booth was a fortunate man. Born at 

 Chalfont St. Giles, in Buckinghamshire, in June, 1840, he was 

 educated at Harrow and Cambridge, and on leaving the University 

 found himself, as an only son of well-to-do parents, sufficiently 

 well off to be independent of a profession. Possibly the previous 

 knowledge of what was in store for him exercised a prejudicial 

 influence over his early studies. At any rate study of any kind 

 was unacceptable to him, and the nature of his distractions may 

 be best expressed in his own words : — "To an undergraduate 

 with a strong predilection for the gun, the proximity to Cambridge 

 of the various fens and rough marsh lands was a temptation 

 scarcely to be resisted. The pursuit of the ' longbills,' however, 

 for several consecutive days in the week during term time, and 

 consequent absence from lectures, coupled with a ' scratch ' for 

 more than one examination, raised at length the long-cherished 

 wrath of the authorities," and — he had to leave before taking his 

 degree. His tutor assured him that before ten years could 

 elapse he would regret the time he had wasted at the University. 





