150 Bulletin of the British 



regards the value of their contents. The special feature 

 that distinguishes 'The Ibis' is, I think I may say, its 

 cosmopolitanism. Englishmen, as we know, and especially 

 English ornithologists, are scattered over the whole world. 

 Their motto, like that of the Royal Engineers, is ' Ubique'; 

 and although there are always a certain number of 

 communications in ' The Ibis' relating to 'British' Birds, the 

 majority of the memoirs either come from correspondents 

 in foreign couutries, or are devoted to the description of 

 collections transmitted to headquarters from travellers in 

 distant lands. For example, taking a look for a moment 

 at the recently completed volume for 1897, we find articles 

 on the Birds of British Burmah, Chili, Morocco, the 

 Pyrenees, Siberia, Guiana, Argentina, China, the Red Sea, 

 the Philippine Islands, San Domingo, Central Madagascar, 

 New Guinea, Zulu-land, Nyasa-land, Oudh, and Spitsbergen. 

 It will be seen that our claims to be cosmopolitan in science, 

 although we are at the same time all British patriots to the 

 backbone, have not been put forward without reason. I 

 will not now stop to describe what has been written in 

 'The Ibis' in other branches of ornithological research 

 during recent years, but I can assure you that the Editors 

 have done their very best to keep the Journal up to the 

 highest standard. 



" The third leading journal in Ornithology — 'The Auk ' — 

 was established by the American Ornithologists' Union in 

 T884, and the editorship was assigned to Prof. J. A. Allen, 

 under whose well-ordered sway it still continues. As would 

 naturally be expected, 'The Auk' is mainly devoted to pro- 

 moting a knowledge of the Birds of the New World, and the 

 greater number of its articles relate to what I am pleased still 

 to call the Nearctic Region, although the zoo-geographers of 

 the United States seem to have lately entered into a conspiracy 

 to abolish the use of that convenient term. Of the activity 

 and intelligent zeal of our American brethren in the cause to 

 which we are all devoted there can be no question. Owing 

 to their enthusiasm^ of which ' The Auk ' itself is a product, 

 there is probably no part of the world the native birds of which 



