230 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



evolution. His recent work on ' The Primary Factors of Organic 

 Evolution' is a case in point, and it is well to remember that to 

 really keep abreast of the current biological thought of the day 

 it is necessary to read and study Cope and Eimer as well as 

 Wallace and Weismann. 



We have also to record the deaths of the following zoolo- 

 gists : — 



Major Charles E. Bendire, who died at Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.A., 

 on February 4th, was born in Hesse Darmstadt, on April 27th, 1836, and 

 went to America in 1852, where he undertook considerable military service. 

 As an ornithologist he will be perhaps best remembered by his well-known 

 1 Life Histories of North American Birds,' of which the second volume 

 recently appeared, leaving the whole work, however, less than half completed. 

 We learn from 'The Auk' that his immense collection of birds' eggs, 

 gathered during his military wanderings, long since became the property of 

 the United States National Museum, where their donor had held for some 

 years the position of Honorary Curator of the Department of Oology. 



Sir Edward Newton, K.C.M.G., died at Lowestoft on April 25th, in 

 the sixty fifth year of his age. He held several important Colonial Govern- 

 ment appointments, and he was fortunately a member of the mission sent by 

 the government of Mauritius to congratulate the late King of Madagascar on 

 his accession to the throne, when, according to ' Nature,' being an ardent 

 ornithologist, he seized the opportunity (as he did during a subsequent visit 

 made with that express purpose) to materially increase the knowledge of the 

 very peculiar fauna of that country, which he was almost the first English 

 naturalist to investigate on the spot. He also largely increased our know- 

 ledge of the zoology of the Mascarene Islands, and it was mainly due to his 

 exertions that nearly complete skeletons of the "Solitaire" of Rodriguez 

 were recovered from the caves of that island, as described in the ' Philosophical 

 Transactions' of the Royal Society. Sir Edward was also one of the 

 founders of the British Ornithologists' Union. 



Mr. Hugh Nevill, F.Z.S., of the Ceylon Civil Service, died at Hyeres 

 on April 10th. Mr. Nevill had been an indefatigable collector during 

 twenty .seven years' service, had discovered and described many new species 

 in zoology, aud had contributed many specimens to our museums. Quoting 

 from the 'Athenaeum,' "his collection of birds passed to the late Marquis of 

 Tweeddale; but a large and very complete collection of certain genera of 

 shells remains." 



