H i s MANY FRIENDS and correspondents throughout the United Kingdom will learn with regret of the sudden death of W . S. (Will) Cowin, of Douglas, Isle of Man, on 29th June 1958, a t the early a g e of fifty. Born in Douglas on 17th August 1907, Will Cowin was a man of many p a r t s : a keen rifleman, chess-player and philatelist, but probably best known as the Island's foremost naturalist, equally interested and well-informed in botany, entomology and ornithology. H e had numerous plant and insect discoveries to his credit, notably that of Epitriptus cowini, a robber-fly (Asilidae) which bears his name. But bird's were his chief love, and throughout his life he was an indefatigable watcher and collator of information which he passed on annually to his fellow-naturalists through the medium of The Peregrine (Yn Shirragh ny Ree), the Manx natural history magazine which he founded in 1942 (in collaboration with Kenneth Williamson) and which he edited for sixteen years. W h e n , in 1948, the British Trust for Ornithology launched its scheme of Regional Representatives, it w a s only natural that Will Cowin should be invited to stand for the Isle of Man, and this position he retained until his death. Ringing w a s a particular interest of his and' in t h e past thirty years h e w a s responsible for marking several thousand birds, particularly Ravens, Choughs and gulls. H e made