We trust that these birds may be allowed to survive, though as a commentary to the desire we extract the following note from 'The Shooting Times' (Aug. 25th):—"A Portsmouth sportsman thought he had made a lucky haul a few days ago. His eagle eye detected five fine Storks disporting themselves on a local waste, and, after much trouble, he succeeded in stalking them, and bagged the lot. He took the rare birds to a taxidermist, and a day or two later learned that the Storks had escaped from Sanger's circus, which was visiting the neighbourhood."
We regret to learn the death of Dr. John Anderson, M.D., F.R.S., which took place very suddenly at Buxton on Aug. 16th. For the following particulars we are largely indebted to the 'Athenæum.' John Anderson was born in Edinburgh in 1833. He was educated for the medical profession, and in 1861 took the degree of M.D. of Edinburgh University. His strong taste for natural history, however, led him definitely to abandon his career as a medical man when, in 1864, he was offered the curatorship of the newly founded Indian Museum in Calcutta. In 1868, and again in 1874, he was selected by the Government of India to act as scientific officer to an expedition into Western China: and in 1881 he was sent by the Trustees of the Indian Museum to investigate the fauna of the Mergui Archipelago in Tenasserim. Since his return from India, in 1887, Dr. Anderson, acting under medical advice, spent the winters in the south, and his periodical visits to Algeria and Egypt roused in him an interest in the fauna of North Africa and Arabia, which has proved of the greatest benefit to science. He defrayed the costs of a collector to accompany Mr. Theodore Bent's expedition to the Hadramaut; and of late years much of his wealth and time has been devoted to the preparation or a series of volumes upon the vertebrate zoology of Egypt, which his untimely death leaves uncompleted.
The friends of the late Sir William Flower, K.C.B. (Director of the Natural History Museum and President of the Zoological Society of London), are anxious to place a memorial of his great services to science in the Whale Room of the Natural History Museum—one of the departments in which he was most interested, and to which he devoted special care and attention. The memorial would, subject to the consent of the Trustees of the Museum, consist (probably) of a bust and a commemorative brass tablet. It is thought that Sir William Flower's many friends and admirers would be glad to associate themselves with this undertaking. In order to carry it out an influential Committee has been formed. Subscriptions may be paid to the Treasurer, Dr. P.L. Sclater, at 3, Hanover Square, London, W. It has been agreed that each subscription should not exceed £2 2s.
