262 obituary Notice. f,^' tCmli April Obituary Notice. Following the announcement of the death of Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe in the last issue of T/ie Emu (p. 178), with the publica- tion of a letter he was good enough to forward to the editors, a further notice of that distinguished ornithologist is now given. Dr. Sharpe was present at the meeting of the British Orni- thologists' Club on the evening of the i6th December last, when he seemed to be in his usual cheerful mood and health. The following day he took to his bed, pneumonia and other com- plications supervened, and he passed away early on the morning of Christmas Day. The following sketch of his ornithological career appeared in the recent Jubilee Supplement of The Ibis {(^og) : — " Richard Bowdler Sharpe was born on the 22nd of Novem- ber, 1847, being the eldest son of Thomas Bowdler Sharpe, a well-known publisher in his day. At the age of six he was sent to Brighton, where his aunt, the widow of the Rev. James Lloyd Wallace, formerly head-master of Sevenoaks Grammar School, had a boys' school, to be well grounded in Latin and Greek. At nine years of age he was transferred to Peterborough Grammar School, of which his cousin, the Rev. James Wallace, had been appointed head-master after his return from the Crimea, where he had served as an Army-Chaplain. Within a few days of his arrival at Peterborough, Sharpe gained a King's scholarship, which gave him a free education, while he was also a choir-boy in the Cathedral. He left Peterborough with the Rev. James Wallace, on the appointment of the latter to the head-mastership of Loughborough Grammar School, and studied there for some time, commencing his collection of bird- skins ; he had already made a large collection of eggs while at Peterborough. He was afterwards sent, with the object of studying for the army, to a private tutor at Steeple Gidding in Huntingdonshire, the Rector, the Rev. C. Molyneaux, having been a school-fellow of his father's. Here he remembers having seen the late Lord Lilford, with his Falconer and a full train, hawking on Great Gidding Field. Having no taste for mathe- matics, however, he did little work, but devoted most of his time to bird collecting and taxidermy, making at the same time a considerable collection of insects, and having always a large assortment of living birds. " His father, who was then living at Cookham, wished the boy to prepare for Oxford, as his mathematical training for the Royal Engineers had been a failure; but the lad thought of nothing but bird-collecting. " His first paper, on the Birds of Cookham and the neigh- bourhood, appeared in the Journal of the High Wycombe Natural History Society, and his collection of specimens, made at this time, is in the Natural History Museum.
