Richard Lydekker. 



v 



In connection with his Exhibition work, Lydekker became more and more 

 interested in large Mammals, and, as a consequence, in the sporting side of 

 Natural History, writing constantly for the 1 Field ' and similar papers, and 

 gradually becoming the chief referee for all questions connected with the 

 technical side of Sporting Zoology. And when recently the Trustees decided 

 to publish a Catalogue of Ungulates on the same lines as the other technical 

 catalogues, a work which for various reasons was of quite unusual difficulty, 

 it was entrusted to Lydekker as the chief authority on the subject. Com- 

 mencing it in 1913, and working with his usual celerity, he had practically 

 finished it by the time his fatal illness ended, working on his sick bed at the 

 proofs of the fourth and the MS. of the fifth and last volume. 



Side by side with the Exhibition and Catalogue work, Lydekker prepared 

 for 27 years (1887-1913) the Mammal part of the ' Zoological Eecord,' for 

 which his genius for hard work and his wide knowledge of Mammalia made 

 him peculiarly suitable. He also took very great interest in Geographical 

 Zoology, his ' Geographical History of Mammals ' (1896) being one of the 

 best books on the subject. 



The most striking characteristic of Lydekker was his ceaseless activity in 

 publishing work on the subjects he was interested in. Technical or popular, 

 an absolutely unbroken stream of writing came from his pen from the early 

 nineties to the date of his death, and it is probable that no scientific writer 

 has ever produced so much in the time as he did during the last 20 years 

 of his life. Though much of it made no pretension to be of permanent 

 value, all shows how intensely interested he was in every branch of his 

 subject, and how wide his sympathies were with other workers. Personally, 

 the writer of this notice has found him again and again the one zoologist 

 who could give intelligent interest on technical points to which few modern 

 mammalogists trouble to pay any attention. On all such technical matters — 

 as, for example, the wonderful dentition of the Manatee, which he worked 

 out in conjunction with the writer, the ancestry of the Sirenians (see ' Proc. 

 Zool. Soc.,' 1892), and other similar subjects — his interest was intense and 

 helpful, even if the exigencies of his life led him to devote most of his 

 publishing energies to the more sporting and popular side of Zoology. In 

 official matters he was ever helpful, and ready to do anything he was asked. 



His rapidity of work was phenomenal, but, unfortunately, in conjunction 

 with a somewhat illegible handwriting, this brought its penalty in a rather 

 undue proportion of misprints and lapsus calami, such as a slower worker 

 might have avoided. On this account some of his writings hardly do justice 

 to his really great knowledge of his subject. 



At home at Harpenden, besides his unceasing writing work, his occupations 

 and amusements were chiefly stamp collecting, walking, gardening, and 

 carpentry. In youth he had been fond of shooting, but was never bitten 

 with the craze for games of any sort, though he took a sympathetic interest 

 in the sporting careers of those who were. 



In person he was tall, over 6 feet in height, handsome and well 



vol. lxxxix. — b. c 



