MEMOIR OF HENRY OSBORNE. 
As we have based our Avi-fauua of Caithness on the notes and 
writings of Mr. H. Osborne, we think this a fitting opportunity 
to give some slight sketch of liis life and surroundings, and for 
these particulars we are indebted to Mr. James Couper of the John 
o' Groat Jmirnal office. 
Henry Osborne was born at Wick in 1837. He was the 
eldest son of Mr. Henry Osborne, for luany years Governor of 
Wick Prison, and from him he seems to have inherited his love 
for birds, as ]\Ir. O.sborne, sen., was in the habit of having tame 
birds within the prison walls, amongst others being several grouse, 
a pair of which brought out a covey of young. Possessed of great 
natural talents and literary ability, and gifted with a rare faculty 
of observation, his ardent love of nature led him deeply into the 
study of natural history, ornithology being his favourite branch. 
Although his notes have never before been published, yet under the 
signature " H. 0." he was a frequent contributor to both the Fidel 
and Land and Water ; and his notes and remarks were always of 
value, as they were the result of personal observation. He was 
essentially a field naturalist, and some of his notes, especially one 
relating to the Waxwing, are full of freshness and originality. He 
also occasionally contributed articles on literary and natural-history 
subjects to the periodical press, giving the gracefully told results of 
his observations. Among the last articles he wrote, before his 
final illness compelled him to drop his pen, was a review for the 
Scotsman of Tegetmeier's work on Pigeons. In the ornithology of 
his native county he was specially at home, and he added several 
new species to the Caithness Fauna. 
For fully seven years he struggled with a malady that baffled 
all medical skill, yet he bore up bravely under it, his active Intel- 
