2 Inaugural Address. 



Canon Tristram, Professor Newton, and my father, Mr. P. 

 L. Sclater, still survive among the original members. 



The chief object of the Union was to sujiply a journal or 

 organ whereby the Members and others " might more readily 

 bring before the public the results of their labours, discoveries, 

 and observations in diiferent parts of the world." Such an 

 organ was provided in ' The Ibis/ a journal which has been 

 issued in quarterly parts ever since 1 859, and which contains 

 an amount of information on all branches of ornithology such 

 as has never been before or since brought together. So far 

 as I am aware, there is no complete set of this indispensable 

 publication to be found in South Africa, though in the Public 

 Library in Capetown there is a set complete but for the 

 first two volumes for 1859 and 1860. It is to be hoped that 

 one of the objects of our present Union will be to start an 

 ornithological library and that this library will obtain, as 

 soon as funds allow, a complete set of ' The Ibis.' 



Other countries have followed England's example ; in fact, 

 Germany was before us, where Cabanis founded his ' Journal 

 fiir Ornithologie ' in 1853, which is now under the able editor- 

 ship of Dr. Anton Reichenow, of the Berlin Natural History 

 Museum. In America the Nuttall Ornithological Club issued 

 its Bulletin from 1876 to 188.''), after which the name of the 

 journal was changed to the ' Auk/ and is now edited by 

 Mr. J. A. Allen, for the American Ornithological Union. 



A more recent magazine is the Australian ' Emu,'' the first 

 part of which w-as only issued in 1 901 ; while in India, under 

 the editorship of Mr. Allan 0. Hume, there were published 

 between 1873 and 1899 twelve volumes of a journal exclu- 

 sively devoted to the ornithology of that dependency, which 

 form a storehouse of information to the bird-lover of the 

 Orient. 



The time seems ripe, therefore, to endeavour to bring our 

 knowledge of our native South African birds up to the 

 standard of other civilised countries : and there can be little 

 donbt that the formation of a society or club and the 

 publication of a journal will be the best means of stimulating 

 and focussing all future work on the subject. 



