PREFACE. 



The promoters of ' The Ibis' think it due to the public, 

 and to themselves, that, on the completion of the first 

 volume, some account should be given of the circum- 

 stances under M^hich the undertaking was originated. 



For some years past a few gentlemen attached to the 

 study of Ornithology, most of them more or less inti- 

 mately connected with the University of Cambridge, had 

 been in the habit of meeting together, once a-year, or 

 oftener, to exhibit to one another the various objects of 

 interest which had occurred to them, and to talk over 

 both former and future plans of adding to their know- 

 ledge of this branch of Natural History. 



These meetings, being entirely of a private and social 

 nature, were found agreeable by those who attended 

 them, and gradually became more frequented. In the 

 autumn of 1857 the gathering of naturalists was greater 

 than it had hitherto been, and it appeared that among 

 some of those present there was a strong feeling that it 

 would be advisable to establish a Magazine devoted 

 solely to Ornithology. 



This feeling was not prompted by any jealousy of 

 periodicals already existing, but by the belief that the 



