xxxvi MEMOIR. 



ing too many things, which his Oxford career had 

 previously warned him of. The diversity of his 

 pursuits led him into many delays, each one of 

 which no doubt contributed its share, together with 

 the obstructiveness of native tribes, to that long 

 detention on his journey which finally threw his 

 visit to the Zambesi into the unhealthy season of 

 the year. It must be granted, however, at the same 

 time, that his love of adventure led him into places 

 where the field for inquiry was especially inviting, 

 and offered exceptional advantages ; and also that 

 his devotion to natural history beguiled throughout 

 his journey what might otherwise have proved many 

 a weary march. It is more than probable — so fully 

 had the need of this now been brought home to him 

 — that on another journey, had he been spared to 

 make one, he would have concentrated his chief 

 energies upon fewer objects. What these might 

 have been must remain, indeed, matter of conjecture; 

 but whatever else he had abandoned, the pursuit of 

 ornithology would certainly have held a place second 

 only to that of exploration. 



In character and temperament Frank Oates was 

 admirably fitted for his work. " I like anything," 

 he once wrote when at Oxford, "that seems difficult 

 of attainment," — the very zest of the pursuit proving 

 in such cases its own reward to him. So too, in 

 disposition ; he had just the one which recommends 



