LINNEAN SOCIETY OP LONDON. 99 



in Ornithological Literature. Two years later he entered the 

 employment of Mr. B. Quariteh, the well-known bookseller, and 

 this gave him access to some of tlie finest Ornithological works 

 of the time. Every penny he could scrape together he spent in 

 buying specimens of Kingfishers for his great book, and every 

 moment he could spare was spent in its preparation, so that his 

 working hours were long indeed. 



In 1867, when nineteen years old, he was appointed Librarian 

 to the Zoological Society of London — the first to hold this position, 

 and this appointment gave Inm better opportunities, and greater 

 scope for i)is talents. Five years later the reward for his years 

 of unnecessary hard labour came to liim, for in 1872 he was 

 appointed Senior Assistant in the Department of Zoology of the 

 British Museum, and was placed in charge of the Collection of 

 Birds. 



One of the first tasks entrusted to him was the preparation of 

 the first volume of that monumental work the British Museum 

 ' Catalogue of Birds,' the most exhaustive work of its kind in 

 existence. In the seven-and-twenty volumes of that work every 

 known species of bird, up to the date of publicity of each volume, 

 is described. This entailed an account of all phases of plumage 

 and a list of all the literature, relating to each species — a truly 

 appalling task ; yet of these twenty-seven volumes Sharpe contrived 

 to write eleven, and portions of tv\'o others. At least this much 

 stands to his credit : the remaining volumes were written in part 

 by Mr. W. E. Ogilvie-Grant, aud in part by outside aid, and 

 these later authors drew largely on Sharpe for guidance aud help. 



But besides this, he also compiled during his later years a 

 ' Hand-list of Birds,' the last volume of which was only completed 

 just before his death. Most men would have quailed before such 

 an undertaking requiring so much labour and yielding so little in 

 return, for it can appeal only to the specialist. 



Another ofiicial publication was his ' Histoiy of the Bird Col- 

 lection in the British Museum.' This is full of interesting 

 matter concerning the collections, and the men who made them. 



Besides his Monograph of the Kingfishers he also wrote no less 

 comprehensive treatises on the Swallows and the Birds of Paradise, 

 and a Handbook to the Birds of Great Britain. Innumerable 

 appendices to the Volumes of Travel written by eminent explorers, 

 describing the birds collected on their journeys, and a no less 

 voluminous list of separate reports and papers on new species of 

 birds, in themselves form no mean monument. Besides, he also 

 edited, or revised aud largely re-wrote, a considerable number of 

 works of eminent Ornithologists removed by death before their 

 labours were complete. The huge tomes of John Gould, and two 

 Aolumes of Henry Seebohm are among the most notable of this 

 category. To these we must add a very long list of papers con- 

 tributed to the Journal and Transactions of this Society, the 

 Zoological Society, the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History,' 

 ' The Ibis,' and the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 



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