Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/479

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OCCASIONAL NOTES.
455

Spotted Flycatcher nesting in Hyde Park. — A pair of Spotted Flycatchers, Muscicapa grisola, frequented the gardens of Hamilton Place this summer (1878), and from the male bird being constantly alone there can be no doubt they had a nest there. Another pair built a nest in the foot of an elm in the Ornamental Garden at the east end of the Serpentine, and hatched their young. I watched the parent birds constantly feeding them. Another pair built their nest in a tree a few yards from the broad walk leading to the Albert Memorial, Kensington Gardens. — Edward Hamilton (Portugal Street, Grosvenor Square).

Sabine's Gull at Scarborough. — On November 7th I had an immature specimen of Sabine's Gull brought in to be preserved. No mature specimen, so far as I am aware, has been obtained on this coast. — Alfred Roberts (Scarborough).


Death of Mr. T.W. Wonfor. — This gentleman, whose name has long been familiar to all classes of Brighton society, died at his residence, 38, Buckingham Place, Brighton, on Sunday, the 20th October last, in the fifty-first year of his age. His entry on a public career in Brighton was first made in connection with the Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, at the Albion Rooms. Shortly after the formation of the Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society, in 1855, Mr. Wonfor was appointed an Honorary Secretary, a post he continued to fill to the date of his death, and the duties of which he discharged with exceptional ability and energy. At the meetings of this Society, from which he was rarely absent, his extensive knowledge and cheerful manner rendered him a universal favourite, and his death leaves a vacancy which it will be difficult to supply. The papers communicated by Mr. Wonfor to the 'Proceedings of the Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society,' chiefly on subjects connected with Microscopy, are numerous, and the excellence of many of them obtained for their author a more than local reputation. One of these, "On certain Butterfly Scales characteristic of Sex," read at Brighton in November, 1867, was subsequently published in the eighth volume of the 'Microscopical Journal' In addition Mr. Wonfor contributed a great many articles on different branches of Zoology, not only to the 'Proceedings' of his own Society, but to 'Scientific Opinion,' 'Science Gossip,' and other periodicals. On the occasion of the visit of the British Association to Brighton, in 1872, Mr. Wonfor took a very active part in their proceedings, and acted as Secretary to one of the Committees. Although he never attained the position of a distinguished scientific specialist, few men ever possessed so large an amount of general information on scientific matters, or have been more ready to impart it for the benefit of others. Mr. Wonfor was appointed Curator of the Free Library and Museum in 1875, and was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in June, 1877, and a Member of the Entomological Society in February last.