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Obituary. 
Edgar Leopold Layard, C.M.G., who died at Budleigh 
Salterton, Devon, on January 1st, was elected an Honorary 
Member of the B.O.U. in I860, and was therefore one of 
our oldest as well as one of our most valued correspondents. 
He was born at Florence on July 23rd, 1824, and entered 
the Civil Service of Ceylon when twenty-two years of age; 
but after nine years his health gave way, and in 1855 he 
accepted the invitation of the late Sir George Grey to a 
post in the Civil Service at Cape Town. There he founded 
the South-African Museum, and became its first curator; 
after which he accompanied Sir G. Grey on a special 
mission to New Zealand, and subsequently became judge 
and commissioner under the Slave Trade Treaties at the 
Cape. Transferred to the Consular Service, he was for 
some years at Para, at the mouth of the Amazons; next he 
was sent to Fiji, where he arranged the cession, and was 
decorated in 1875 ; he then resumed Consular Service at 
Noumea, New Caledonia, and ultimately retired after 
forty-seven years of hard work. Layard was not a pro¬ 
ducer of many books, and his chief work in this line was 
‘The Birds of South Africa/ published in 1867, of which 
a new and revised edition, with the collaboration of Dr. 
Bowdler Sharpe, made its appearance between 1875-84. It 
is rather by his many and varied contributions from 1854 
almost to the time of his much regretted death that he 
will be remembered; and a column of closely-printed type 
in the General Subject-Index to ‘The Ibis’ testifies to his 
energy in our special subject. Besides these, his bright and 
pleasant letters to ‘ The Field/ under his own name or the 
pseudonym of ‘ Bos Caffer/ will be familiar to most of our 
readers ; and his genial personality will be greatly missed 
and regretted by all who have had the pleasure of his 
acquaintance. 
