Obituary


OBITUARY


MR. E. G. B. MEADE-WALDO



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The death of Mr. Meade-Waldo, in his 80th year, which took

place at his residence, Stonewall Park, Edenbridge, Kent, on

Saturday, 24th February, has removed from our midst one of the

oldest members of the Avicultural Society, and one of the keenest

nature-lovers in the world. Born in Ireland in 1855, he was

educated at Eton and Magdalene College, Cambridge. From his

earliest youth and throughout his long life Meade-Waldo had taken

the greatest interest in natural history. In his younger days he

travelled much, and although never a keen collector of specimens,

he did, at the request of the Natural History Museum, make several

valuable discoveries of new birds in the Atlas Mountains. At one

time he kept a number of live birds in captivity, especially the

rarer Owls, and he bred Sand Grouse ( Pterocles alchatus and P .

exustus), Desert Bullfinches ( Bucanetes githaginea amantium), the

Teydean Chaffinch ( Fringilla teydese ), the Nicobar Pigeon

(Calcenas nicobaricse ), Scops Owl ( Otus scops), and many other

species. But it is perhaps as a bird protectionist that Meade-Waldo

will be best remembered. He was never opposed to the keeping

of birds in captivity, but never spared his efforts to prevent the

destruction of rare species or to save those in danger of extinction.

He was an energetic member of the Zoological Society, which he

joined in 1874, and served on its Council for many years, a member

and keen supporter of the Royal Society for the Protection of

Birds, the Society for the Preservation of the Fauna of the Empire,

and the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves. Mr. Meade-

Waldo suffered a severe shock by the death, in January, 1933, of

his almost life-long friend, Mr. Herbert St. Quintin, with whom

he was accustomed to correspond almost daily, and to many of his

friends it seemed that he had never been quite the same since. But

up to the last he continued to take the keenest interest in the

subject to which he had devoted his life. He will be greatly missed

by all who knew him.



D. S-S.


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