19.2 Obituary. 
eggs of tlie Water-Rail in what was once Whittlesea 
Mere.” 
This is indeed a peep into the past, and might serve as an 
introduction to any naturalist who did not happen to know 
Southwell. But as a matter of fact he must have been well- 
known not only to the naturalists of East Anglia, where he 
spent his life, but far beyond the confines of his own county. 
For although he did not travel much, he was a zealous 
correspondent, and his name would be familiar to many 
who never saw him, through the medium of his books and 
published writings. 
Born at King’s Lynn on June 15, 1831, as soon as he was 
old enough to turn to a profession he entered Gurney’s Bank 
at Lynn, whence he w r as transferred to the branch at Faken- 
ham and subsequently to Norwich. There he spent the 
remainder of his life, retiring from business in 1896 after 
exactly fifty years’ service. 
When the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society was 
founded in 1869 he was one of the original members, and long 
acted as honorary secretary, besides serving on the journal 
committee. The c Transactions ’ of the Society, which he 
helped to edit from that time forward, frequently contained 
valuable papers of his own relating to the mammals and 
birds of the county, as well as to archaeological subjects of 
local interest, such as ancient wildfowl decoys, swan-marks, 
and the former condition of the fen-lands. In 1879, when 
he published a new edition of Lubbock’s ‘ Fauna of Norfolk,’ 
he was elected president of the Society, an honour which 
was again conferred upon him in 1893. He had become a 
Fellow of the Zoological Society in 1872, and in 1881 was 
elected a member of the British Ornithologists’ Union. In 
that year he published his first book, f The Seals and Whales 
of the British Seas ’ (reviewed in the f Field ’ of May 28, 
1881), and to this subject for many years he continued 
to devote considerable attention. From 1884 onward he 
contributed to the ‘ Zoologist ’ an annual report on the 
seal- and whale-fisheries, of great interest and value, the 
statistics being collected from the most trustworthy sources of 
