140 Bulletin of the British 



of ,£25 towards the expenses of the production of Vol. II. 

 of the ' Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club/ 

 and that a complete copy of the three volumes of the 

 ' Bulletin ' be presented to him.'' 



The Chairman read the following Address to the Club : — 



My remarks on opening the Third Session of the B. O. C. 

 have been unavoidably postponed until the present Meeting ; 

 but I now propose to address to you a few words on some of 

 the recent events in Ornithology. 



Section I. New Discoveries. 



More than forty years ago, as I well recollect, my former 

 friend and master in Ornithology^ Hugh Strickland, used to 

 complain how hard it was to find a bird really new to Science. 

 Strickland had no idea of the enormous number of new 

 species and new forms, some of them of the most extra- 

 ordinary character, which would be constantly discovered and 

 described year by year after that period. At the present 

 epoch it must be allowed that, in the two great Northern 

 Regions of the earth's surface, there remains little more to 

 be done in the way of discovery of new species. But in 

 the Oriental, Australian, Ethiopian, and Neotropical Re- 

 gions, as fast as new localities are visited, new forms of 

 avian life still continue to present themselves. For ex- 

 ample, Mr. Whitehead's researches in the highlands of the 

 Philippines, and Mr, Everett's labours in the Natuna Islands 

 alike show that the ornithological riches of the Oriental 

 Region are by no means exhausted. In Australia proper, 

 perhaps, little more in the way of novelty is to be expected, 

 but in the Papuan Subregion the already rich Ornis is 

 still receiving most remarkable additions as new areas are 

 explored. Within the past few months two new forms of 

 Paradise-birds, both referable to new genera *, besides many 

 other very interesting new species, have come to light ; and I 



* Loria, Salvad. (Ibis, 1894, p. 564), and Lam^jrothorax, Meyer, 

 Abliandl. k. zool. Mus. Dresd. iv. no. 2. 



