Obituary . 
353 
offhand the particular part of the world from which it came, 
and approximately the limits of its geographical distribu¬ 
tion. In addition, he could point out its characteristic habits, 
its affinities, and peculiarities of structure in such a way as 
to astonish those who came to him for information. It was 
this unrivalled knowledge, aided by an extensive acquaint¬ 
ance with the literature of his subject, that especially 
qualified him for the preparation of the great work of his 
life, the British Museum ‘ Catalogue of Birds/ completed 
in twenty-seven volumes, with several hundred coloured 
plates. 
To appreciate how this came to be written we may glance 
briefly at the events of his career which led up to it. 
Eldest son of the late Thomas Bowdler Sharpe (whose 
name was well known in the forties as the publisher of 
‘ Sharpe’s London Magazine'),' he was born in London on 
the 22nd of November, 1847, and, after being educated 
at Brighton, Peterborough (King’s Scholar), and Lough¬ 
borough Grammar Schools, entered the publishing house 
of W. H. Smith and Son in 1863. In 1867, after a 
year with the late Mr. Bernard Quaritch, he was appointed 
Librarian to the Zoological Society of London, a post which 
he occupied until 1872. With so good a zoological library at 
his command, it was not surprising that his early taste for 
natural history should have been fostered and developed, 
and in the year 1871 he commenced to publish some of the 
results of his studies in ornithology, which included a cata¬ 
logue, extending to seventy-six octavo pages, of his private 
collection of African birds, and a monograph (one of the 
first of its kind) on that very attractive group of birds, the 
Kingfishers. This was issued in quarto, with 121 beautifully 
coloured plates by Keulemans, most of the figures being 
of life size. If Sharpe had published no other work 
than this it would have sufficed to establish his reputa¬ 
tion as a scientific writer on birds ; but this was only the 
beginning of a long series of useful volumes which he was 
destined to complete and give to the world in a form both 
attractive and instructive. In that same year he cooperated 
SER. ix.—VOL. iv. 2 A 
