OBITUARY.
Heinrich Gätke.
Of those ornithologists who have lately passed away there is none who has done better and truer work than Heinrich Gätke, who died peacefully on the island of Heligoland on January 1st last, at the patriarchal age of nearly eighty-four.
Born at Pritzwalk, Mark Brandenburg, on May 19th, 1813, Mr. Gätke, after getting what little schooling was there available, started in life as an artist, marine painting being the branch in which he took the greatest interest. At the age of twenty-three he visited Heligoland for the purpose of making studies, and, meeting there with a congenial helpmate, he married and settled on the island, and was from then resident until his death.
He was even then deeply interested in ornithology, for he at once commenced collecting specimens and making those careful notes on the migration of birds which he continued with the greatest patience and accuracy during a period of nearly sixty years. Essentially an observer and open-air naturalist, he worked year after year, amassing the rich collection of mounted birds which has of recent years become so widely known, and collecting valuable notes, which were entered in his journal with the greatest regularity. He lived a quiet, retired life, gaining his living by his pencil and brush, not publishing the result of his labours until comparatively recently; for his 'Vogelwarte Helgoland' was not issued until 1890, and then only owing to the assistance of Professor Rudolf Blasius, of Brunswick, whose father, the well-known ornithologist, Professor Johann Heinrich Blasius, visited Mr. Gätke in 1853, and was one of the first to call attention to the extent of his labours and the accuracy of his observations.
Various opinions of the deductions and arguments propounded by Mr. Gätke have been expressed by different ornithologists, but with these we will not deal here. Suffice to say that no one has found any reason to question his extreme accuracy, and there is
