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OBITUARY. 



Heinrich Gatke. 



Of those ornithologists who have lately passed away there is 

 none who has done better and truer work than Heinrich Gatke, 

 who died peacefully on the island of Heligoland on January 1st 

 last, at the patriarchal age of nearly eighty -four. 



Born at Pritzwalk, Mark Brandenburg, on May 19th, 1813, 

 Mr. Gatke, after getting what little schooling was there available, 

 started in life as an artist, marine painting being the branch 

 in which he took the greatest interest. At the age of twenty- 

 three he visited Heligoland for the purpose of making studies, 

 and, meeting there with a congenial helpmate, he married and 

 settled on the island, and was from then resident until his death. 



He was even then deeply interested in ornithology, for 

 he at once commenced collecting specimens and making those 

 careful notes on the migration of birds which he continued 

 with the greatest patience and accuracy during a period of nearly 

 sixty years. Essentially an observer and open-air naturalist, he 

 worked year after year, amassing the rich collection of mounted 

 birds which has of recent years become so widely known, and 

 collecting valuable notes, which were entered in his journal with 

 the greatest regularity. He lived a quiet, retired life, gaining his 

 living by his pencil and brush, not publishing the result of 

 his labours until comparatively recently ; for his * Vogelwarte 

 Helgoland' was not issued until 1890, and then only owing to 

 the assistance of Professor Rudolf Blasius, of Brunswick, whose 

 father, the well-known ornithologist, Professor Johann Heinrich 

 Blasius, visited Mr. Gatke in 1853, and was one of the first to 

 call attention to the extent of his labours and the accuracy of his 

 observations. 



Various opinions of the deductions and arguments propounded 

 by Mr. Gatke have been expressed by different ornithologists, but 

 with these we will not deal here. Suffice to say that no one has 

 found any reason to question his extreme accuracy, and there is 



