Annual Report of the Cojincil. xxxvii 



possessed by Dr. Sharpe that he prepared personally nearly 

 one-half of the 11,500 species contained in the entire work. 



Following the "Catalogue" Dr. Sharpe was also responsible 

 for the "Hand-list of the Genera and Species of Birds" (8vo., 

 5 vols., 1899), the last volume having been finished and issued 

 within a few weeks of his death. 



These two undertakings, the "Catalogue" and the "Hand- 

 list " published during the thirty-seven years of his official life as 

 Curator of the British Museum Department of Birds, are only a 

 part, although a considerable part, of his ornithological output 

 during this long period, for he found time to complete the 

 unfinished works of several of his ornithological colleagues, and 

 to write a large number of special publications on birds which 

 alone might be considered a remarkable series to be produced 

 by a single author. His ornithological papers in scientific 

 journals, beginning in 1866, number nearly four hundred, and 

 some of them are of considerable length, while for fifteen years 

 he was the recorder for the Class Aves in the Zoological 

 Record. He also wrote and published various popular works 

 and delivered many courses of lectures on birds, all in addition 

 to his multifarious duties in the Bird Room of the British 

 Museum, involving among other things constant personal 

 attention to the many enquiries addressed to him and to the 

 numerous visitors to the Department who daily go there 

 seeking information. 



" His remarkable success in building up the national 

 collection of birds, from 35,000 in 1872 to about 500,000 in 

 1909, despite the weeding out of many duplicates, is well known. 

 Many of the important collections that were transferred to the 

 British Museum by their donors, were avowedly contributed to 

 this institution in consequence of the presence of Dr. Sharpe 

 at the head of the Ornithological Department, as notably the 

 great Hume and Tweedale collections and others.'' 



" Those who only met Dr. Sharpe during the last ten years 

 of his life cannot realize the extraordinary energy he formerly 

 possessed, and the enormous amount of work he was able to 



