350 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
between 1867 and 1878. These relate almost exclusively to descrip- 
tions, with figures, of new species of birds from various parts of the 
world, and are looked upon as the most important contributions to 
ornithological science that have been published during the same 
period in this or any other country. No one, indeed, can look upon 
the masterly work of Lord Tweeddale without feeling that by his 
sudden and premature death an irreparable loss has fallen upon the 
science to which he was devoted, and that many years must pass 
before ornithologists cease to deplore his untimely removal. 
In 1877 Lord Tweeddale published fifteen separate papers on 
ornithological subjects, and in the following year about the same 
number — the fourteenth and last having, as already mentioned, been 
finished only a few days before his death. His loss, therefore, came 
upon the scientific world at a time when his writings were being 
regarded with a peculiar interest, and when he himself was every- 
where being recognised as the most able ornithologist of his day. 
Lord Tweeddale died at Walden Cottage, Chislehurst, on the 29th 
December 1878. His collections of birds, which are of great value, 
being the repository of a large number of type species described in 
the papers referred to, together with his valuable library of scientific 
works, are bequeathed to his nephew, Mr R. Wardlaw Ramsay, 
himself an ornithologist of considerable note. 
Dr James M‘Bain. By Robert Gray, Esq. 
Dr James M‘Bain was born at Logie, in Forfarshire, in November 
1807. After having spent some years at the parish school of 
Kirriemuir, and about three years as an apprentice to a local 
surgeon, he entered upon the study of medicine at the University 
of Edinburgh in 1823. Three years later, namely, in March 1826, 
he passed his examination at Surgeons’ Hall, and received his 
diploma when little more than nineteen years of age. About this 
time he removed to St Andrews, where he spent upwards of twelve 
months; and in the autumn of 1827 he was appointed assistant- 
surgeon to H.M.S. “ Undaunted,” just then commissioned to proceed 
to India with the newly-appointed governor, Lord William Bentinck. 
During this and a subsequent voyage in the same ship in 1829, 
to the Azores and Cape de Verde Islands, Dr M‘Bain had but 
