12 
MEMOIR OP HENRY OSBORNE. 
lect being ever at work, even whilst enduring severe pain and 
prostration. Having served his apprenticeship as a compositor in 
the John o'Ghvat Journal office, he was for some time in that of the 
Scotsman, until his health failed; and subsequently, between intervals 
of prostration, he conducted a weekly newspaper in Dingwall, and 
tried again the more exacting labour of a daily newspaper in the 
Guardian office in Manchester ; but the disease returned, and for 
months he was unable to bear the journey home. For nearly 
three years he was confined to his room, and for upwards of two 
years entirely to his bed ; but his interest in his favourite studies 
never flagged till the last, when his bodily weakness became so 
extreme. 
His principal work, written partly, if not entirely, while confined 
to his room, was a general history of British Birds, more especially 
with reference to Caithness, and this it is which we have used as 
a basis for our Fauna of that county, as the manuscript was never 
published in its entirety, and for many years remained in the 
possession of his father. Mr. Osborne was singularly modest and 
retiring in his disposition, although his worth was fully appre- 
ciated by those who knew him. He died in 1868, at the early age 
of thirty-one. 
