OBITUARY.
William Doherty.
William Doherty, the well-known zoological collector and traveller, died at Nairobi, East Africa, on May 25th. He was of Irish descent, born, I believe, at Mount Auburn, Cincinnati, U.S.A., where his parents now reside. He appears to have first gained notoriety as a collector in India about 1886, and made several expeditions on behalf of the authorities of the Calcutta Museum.
In 1888 he travelled through South-east Borneo, and the results of this journey were the first collections he sent to England. The following year he visited the more unexplored parts of South Assam, Manipur, and the Ruby Mines district of Burma, sending to this country extensive collections from these localities; thence he worked down through the Malay Peninsula, and on to Sumatra, returning to Calcutta in 1891.
Early in 1892 he started on a more extended expedition through the Malay Archipelago, visiting Alor, Solor, Sumba, Adonara, Burn, Amboyna, Sumbawa, Timor, Batchian, Sanguir, Talaut (where he discovered a remarkable black species of the genus Ornithopera, named after him), Ternate, Wetter, Gilolo, Tenimber, and other islands, forming most extensive and valuable collections. He finally proceeded to Humboldt Bay, New Guinea; and, although this was a most unhealthy place, and he and his trained collectors were constantly suffering from attacks of fever, the richness of the fauna, and the many new discoveries he was making, induced him to prolong his stay, until they were all attacked with "berri-berri," to which they nearly succumbed. Leaving there towards the end of 1893, he found it necessary to return to his home in Cincinnati, where the state of his health compelled him to remain inactive for nearly two years.
In November, 1895, he was in London, on his way again to the East to explore some of the islands he had not before visited.
