Obituary . 465 
active member of the Alpine Club, and contributed several 
valuable papers to the r Alpine Journal/ among which we 
may mention an account of his travels in Corsica in the 
spring of I860, as containing much interesting matter to 
naturalists. Mr. Hawker died, after a short illness, on the 
26th of May last, at the early age of forty-six years. 
Commander Rowland Money Sperling, of the Royal 
Navy, became a Member of the British Ornithologists' 
Union in 1807. Being a keen ornithologist, he availed 
himself of the scanty opportunities afforded him. by his 
official duties, of collecting and observing the birds that 
came under his notice during his cruises in different parts 
of the world. The results were communicated to this 
Journal. In 1864 he published a paper entitled “ Some 
account of an Ornithologist's Cruise in the Mediterranean." 
This contains some good notes on the migration and habits of 
many European birds. When acting-commander of H.M.S. 
f Racoon/ he gathered the materials for another paper, which 
was published in our volume for 1868. His cruising-ground 
on this occasion was the south-eastern shores of Africa, from 
the Cape of Good Hope to Zanzibar, and included also a visit 
to the “ wide-awake fair," on the island of Ascension. In 
this paper the Procellariidse of those seas came in for a con¬ 
siderable share of attention. Sperling's last communication 
was published in the form of a letter in 1872. A visit to the 
island of Tristan d'Acunha is here related, and also a few 
notes made during an excursion on the Rio de la Plata. 
These papers show that the routine of a sailor's life admits 
of much useful ornithological work being accomplished. We 
wish we could number more followers in a service where many 
officers enjoy equal, if not greater, opportunities for pursuing 
our favourite science. 
Edward Blyth, who died in London in December 1873, 
at the age of sixty-three, was a naturalist of no ordinary 
type. Though to the readers of f The Ibis' his name will 
be chiefly known in its connexion with ornithology, birds by 
ser. hi. — VOL, iv. 2 K 
