Abstract
THE very handsome volume, in which the works of the late Marquis of Tweeddale have now been collected and published, forms a fitting monument of the labours of one of the best ornithologists that this country has ever produced, and its utility to working naturalists cannot be doubted. No one who knew the author of these memoirs will be surprised at the new aspect which is thrown upon his life by the publication of the biographical sketch which Dr. Russell has contributed, though to scientific men Lord Tweeddale was chiefly known as a laborious ornithologist and a thoroughly sound writer and critic; but from the volume now before us we read the highest testimony to his qualities as a soldier, and receive evidence that the same thoroughness which characterised his scientific work was also prominent throughout the whole of his military career. His first ornithological paper appears to have been published in 1844, and was a carefully-written essay; and then for the space of twenty-two years nothing bearing on his favourite study appeared from his pen. His biography, however, shows that during this lapse of time he was completely occupied with his military duties, serving throughout the Sutlej campaign, and later on taking part with the Guards in the memorable Crimean War; and even at this distance of time it is refreshing to read the clear and vigorous criticisms which his keen perception enabled him to make at that period on the conduct of military affairs in the East. Retiring from active service in 1863, he appears to have from that time devoted himself to the pursuit of his favourite science, and until his death, in 1878, he worked with unflagging zeal at the ornithology of the Indian region, amassing one of the grandest collections of birds which has as yet been seen in any country, and forming a library unsurpassed for its completeness in ornithological literature.
The Ornithological Works of Arthur, Ninth Marquis of Tweed dale, F.R.S., etc.
Reprinted from the Originals by the desire of his Widow. Edited and Revised by his Nephew, Robert G. Wardlaw Ramsay, etc., Captain 74th Highlanders. Together with a Biographical Sketch of the Author, by William Howard Russell, LL.D. 4to. Pp. i–lxiv., 1–760. (London: For Private Circulation, 1881.)
Ornitologia della Papuasia e delle Molucche, di Tommaso Salvadori.
Parte seconda. 1 vol. 4to. 706 pp. (Torino, 1881.)
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The Ornithological Works of Arthur, Ninth Marquis of Tweeddale, F.R.S., etc. Ornitologia della Papuasia e delle Molucche, di Tommaso Salvadori. Nature 24, 603 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/024603a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/024603a0