The Zoologist/4th series, vol 3 (1899)/Issue 699/Obituary for John Cordeaux, Distant

by William Lucas Distant

 

OBITUARY.^[1]

 

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John Cordeaux.

 

By the death of Mr. John Cordeaux this magazine has lost one of its oldest and most esteemed contributors. From April, 1864, to May of the present year there has appeared in our pages, from his pen alone, a series of zoological notes and observations that collected would be sufficient material for a fair-sized volume, and one that would, apart from its valuable contribution to avian migration, be a handbook to the natural history of Lincolnshire.

Mr. Cordeaux, who died at Great Cotes House, in Lincolnshire, on August 1st, at the age of sixty-nine, was one of the recognized field naturalists of the day, and was especially an ornithologist, and an authority on the birds of the county in which he lived. His 'Birds of the Humber District' was first published in 1873, and a new and revised edition to April, 1899, was noticed in our last issue. Formerly engaged in farming a portion of the Sutton estate, he had relinquished his agricultural pursuits and devoted the later years of his life to sport and natural history. It was to the phenomena of avian migration that he devoted much time, and he mainly helped to achieve the very considerable results that have already obtained to that branch of natural science. As early as 1874 he journeyed to Heligoland, and visited Gätke to compare notes on the subject which so interested both of them, and with which their names are so identified. In 1875 he published in the 'Ibis' a critical and descriptive notice of Gätke's wonderful collection of birds taken on what might well be called Gätke's Island. In 1879 a fresh impetus was given to the study when he joined Mr. Harvie Brown in a successful endeavour to enlist the services of the keepers of lightships and lighthouses along our coasts in making and recording observations as to the movements of our migratory birds. The Committee appointed by the British Association to further this undertaking, of which he was the hard-working secretary, and the publication nine years afterwards of Mr. Eagle Clarke's "Digest of the Observations," sufficiently appraise the value of this work. The Acts for the protection of sea- and wildfowl gave him much occupation, and he was one of the expert witnesses before a Select Committee of the House of Commons which was formed to take evidence and advice on the subject, the particulars of which are to be found in a Blue Book published in 1873.

Besides being a frequent and most valued contributor to our pages, as well as to the 'Naturalist,' 'Ibis,' Meteorological Society's 'Journal,' and other publications in sympathy with his favourite studies, he was a member of the British Ornithologists' Union; F.R.G.S.; and President, in 1894, of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union. His last publication was apparently in the August number of the 'Naturalist,' and, strangely, was an obituary notice of his late friend and brother naturalist Dr. Bendelack Hewetson, the last paragraph of which contains such prophetic sentences—when read to-day—as "when all present voices have become silent," and a reference to the "valley of shadows."

John Cordeaux was that type of English country gentleman who was not only esquire among the inhabitants of his neighbourhood, but also over the fauna of his county.

 

1. According to the contents, page vi: written by William Lucas Distant (Wikisource-ed.).