346 Zoology. 



party narrowly escaped capture by the very same band of brigands who 

 murdered Mr. Herbert, Mr. Vyner and the Secretary of the Italian 

 Legation the year afterwards. (For an account of this expedition, see 

 the "Ibis " for 1870, pp. 59-77.) 



Being unable to effect an exchange into a regiment in India, Mr. 

 Elwes left the Army in 1870, and determined to devote his time to 

 travel and the pursuit of natural history. He went to Madras with the 

 late Colonel Barne and Colonel the Hon. F. Bridgman. After hunting 

 Elephants and Bison in the Cardamum Hills of Travancore, and making 

 some notes on birds (Ibis, 1870, pp. 526-528), an expedition was 

 made after Tiger and Pihinoceros in the Terai, with Colonel Sir F. (now 

 General Lord) Grenfell and Colonel Bridgman; but, as the latter was 

 invalided by a bad attack of fever, Mr. Elwes made a trip to Darjiling in 

 April and stayed there till the end of October. He joined with Dr. W. 

 T. Blanford in the well-known explorations of the head-waters of the 

 Tista Kiver in Tibet, a locality only once before visited, viz. by Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, twenty-two years previously. An account of this expedition was 

 published by Dr. Blanford in the " Journal " of the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal (vol. xli., pp. 41-73), and three new species of biods were described. 



In November Mr. Elwes went to Assam with the late Colonel 

 Haughton, CLE., the Commissioner of Kuch Behar, but was laid up with 

 fever. After an expedition to Kangra and the north-western Himalayas 

 he returned to England in 1871, and married. The result of his Indian 

 experiences is summed up in his paper on the " Geographical Distribution 

 of Asiatic Birds" (P.Z.S., 1873, pp. 63 5-682, pi. li., map). He like- 

 wise wrote a revision of the genus Henicurus (Ibis, 1872, pp. 250-262, 

 pi. ix.). 



In 1874 Mr. Elwes started to join the late Lord Lilford in his yacht 

 on an expedition to Cyprus, but the yacht was disabled and could not go, 

 so Mr. Elwes travelled by himself from Smyrna to Lycia, and collected 

 birds and. plants. Several new bulbous plants were discovered on this 

 expedition, and one of them, GalantJms elwesi, has become a very 

 popular garden-plant in England. 



From this date he became especially interested in horticulture, and did 

 little more in ornithology, but in May, 1880, he accompanied the late 

 Henry Seebohm on a collecting trip to Denmark and Holland, when they 

 obtained the eggs of the Black Stork (Ciconia nigra), the Kite {Milvus 

 milvus), the Avocet (Itecurvirostra avocetta), and many others (cf. Ibis, 

 1880, pp. 385-399). 



In 1879 he turned his attention to Lepidoptera, and in April, 1882, 

 he went to Algeria, accompanied by Mr. C. Dixon, and discovered a new 

 Chat (Saxicola seebohmi) in the Aures Mountains. (Cf Ibis, 1882, 

 pp. 550-579, pi. 14.) 



For the last twenty years Mr. Elwes has devoted himself to the study 

 of Lepidoptera and Botany, and has made many expeditions, in pursuit 

 of insects and plants, in different parts of the world. In 1884 he was at 

 St. Petersburg as the British Delegate to the International Congress of 

 Botany and Horticulture. In 1886 he was appointed by the Government 

 of India a member of its Embassy to Tibet, a mission which came to 

 naught owing to the political difficulties which led to the war in Sikhim, 

 in 1888. Being unable to cross the Tibetan frontier, Mr. Elwes spent 

 six months in Sikhim and the Khasia Hills. 



After the death of his father in 1891, he settled down on the family 

 estates, and has since devoted his time to forestry and horticulture, varied 

 by occasional visits to Norway, the Tyrol, etc. 



