156 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



be seen from his papers contributed to and published in the first volume 

 of the ' Ibis,' in which he described nine new species of birds from the 

 Sahara ('Ibis,' 1859, pp. 57-59). It is remarkable that in this volume 

 Canon Tristram wrote as follows (p. 429) : — " Writing with a series of 

 about 100 Larks of various species from the Sahara before me, I 

 cannot help feeling convinced. of the truth of the views set forth by 

 Messrs. Darwin and Wallace in their communications to tbe Linnean 

 Society, to which my friend Mr. A. Newton last year directed my 

 attention — ' On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties, and on 

 the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selec- 

 tion.' It is hardly possible, I should think, to illustrate this theory 

 better than by the Larks and Chats of North Africa." From this 

 extract it will be seen that Canon Tristram was one of the first orni- 

 thologists to recognize the importance of the Darwinian Theory. 

 Besides the sojourn in Algeria, which extended from 1855 to 1857 

 Canon Tristram visited and made collections in the Holy Land, Moabi 

 Egypt, the Canary Islands, and even Japan, which he visited in 

 1891. Cauon Tristram's large collection of birds, which is especially 

 rich in island forms, he disposed of to the Liverpool Museum, but 

 even after having parted with it he continued to collect almost as 

 ardently as ever until a few months previous to his death, and has left 

 a collection of about five thousand birds. His collection of eggs he 

 sold some years ago to the late Mr. Philip Crowley. 



Canon Tristram was a most industrious writer, and contributed 

 largely to the 'Ibis' from 1859 — when the British Ornithologists' 

 Union, of which he was an original member, was founded — to 1904. 

 His first paper in vol. i. was on the Ornithology of Palestine, and in 

 the 1904 volume — his last communication to that Journal — a long 

 letter will (p. 164) be found, which treats also of the ' Birds of Palestine.' 

 His chief works are as follows : — ' The Great Sahara,' published in 

 1860 ; ' The Land of Israel,' published in 1865 ; ' The Land of Moab,' 

 published in 1873 ; ' The Natural History of the Bible,' published in 

 1873 ; ' The Fauna and Flora of Palestine,' 1884 ; ' Rambles in 

 Japan,' &c, 1895. 



He married in 1850, but lost his wife just three years previous to 

 his own death, and leaves a large family of daughters, but only one 

 son, who is the headmaster of Loretto College. 



H. E. D. 



