342 Letters, Announcements, i^c. 



books. These do not comprehend nearly the whole subject, but 

 are restricted to different groups as the requirements of the Col- 

 lection led Mr. Gray to work them out. The British Museum 

 is fortunate in possessing valuable series of birds from the 

 islands of the Paciiic Ocean, and these formed the subject of 

 several useful lists, containing descriptions of many new species, 

 which were published in the 'Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society/ Some contributions from Mr. Gray's pen will also be 

 found in the pages of this Journal. 



Mr. Gray's works are concise to a fault; he has usually given 

 us the bare results of his investigations without detailing the 

 steps by which he arrived at those results — the problem and 

 the answer, without the intermediate operations. In some in- 

 stances this is sufficient ; but, as our science moves, or ought to 

 move, by observation rather than authority, many a weary search 

 might have been spared the working ornithologist had an ob- 

 scure reference here and there lightened his task. Perhaps few 

 men have written so much in so few words; and this sparing use 

 of words led Mr. Gray to be even backward in describing many 

 a species upon which he simply bestowed a name, leaving it to 

 others to supply the requisite details. 



To those studying the ornithological riches of the British 

 Museum Mr. Gray was ever ready to lend efficient help, and his 

 presence will long be missed by those who are occasionally or 

 regularly in the habit of consulting the collection. Mr. Gray 

 died on the 6th of May, after a short illness, being in the 64th 

 year of his age. 



By the death of Thomas Caverhill Jerdon, in his 61st year, 

 the science of ornithology has lost one of its most zealous sup- 

 porters, and at a time too, when, by his return to England after 

 a long sojourn in India, the remainder of a useful life might have 

 been spent in the revision of much valuable work published at dif- 

 ferent times during his residence abroad. But such was not to 

 be; and a glance a few pages back in the present Number of this 

 Journal shows where his hand was arrested. Mr. Jerdon was 

 the son of Mr. Archibald Jerdon, of Bonjedward, Roxburgh, and 

 was born in 1811. In 1835 he entered the service of the 



