116 Bulletin of the British 



As the Editors of ' The Ibis ' have already remarked in 

 their preface to the volume for the present year^ one of the 

 leading ornithological events of 1898 is the completion of 

 the ' Catalogue of Birds/ The twenty-sixth volume of this 

 work, prepared by Dr. Bowdlcr Sharpe and Mr. Ogilvie Grant, 

 the only one required to finish the series, will, I am assured, 

 be laid before the Trustees at their meeting on the 22nd inst., 

 and be ready for issue very shortly afterwards. Thus, after 

 a period of twenty-five years, this most important piece of 

 ornithological work has been brought to a conclusion. No 

 human product is perfect, and the Catalogue has been, and 

 will be, the subject of many criticisms. One obvious defect 

 in it is its want of uniformity, the various authors having 

 been permitted, owing to the wise discretion of the authorities, 

 very liberal opportunities for the expression of their own 

 views in their respective portions, although a general ad- 

 herence to one plan has been rightly insisted upon. But 

 when the enormous amount of labour required for this work 

 and. the absolute necessity of employing more than one 

 author upon such a huge task are considered, it Avill be 

 obvious that greater uniformity was practically unattainable. 

 In the case of the Catalogues of Reptiles and Batrachians, 

 where the series of specimens and species was not so large, 

 the herpetologists are fortunate in having had the whole of 

 the work performed upon a uniform system by the inde- 

 fatigable energy of a single naturalist. 



The ' Catalogue of Birds,' as complete in twenty-seven 

 volumes, gives us an account of 11,617 species of this Class 

 of Vertebrates, divided into 2255 genera and 124 families. 

 It has been prepared by eleven authors, all Members of the 

 British Ornithologists' Union, and with one exception, I 

 believe (who is not a resident in England), now or formerly 

 Members of this Club. I think it will be universally 

 allowed that we have, in this case, a great and most useful 

 undertaking brought to a successful conclusion. 



Another good piece of ornithological work, likewise the 

 product of a Member of this Club, which has just made its 

 appearance, is Mr. Beddard''s volume on the ' Structure and 



