BIOCxRAPHICAL SKETCH OF PHILIP LUTLEY SCLATER. 



Mr. Philip Lutley Sclater, secretary of the Zoological Society of 

 London, is one of the best known of living zoologists. Few men 

 have contril)nted so much as he to sj^stematic ornithology, and none 

 have done so much in the identification and description of new forms 

 from the Western Continent. His work has been largely in connec- 

 tion with the luxuriant fauna of Neotropical America, little known at 

 the time when he began his researches. Nearly every year since he 

 began work in 1853, his correspondents in tropical America have laid 

 at his feet new wealth in the form of collections from regions hitherto 

 unexplored. 



He has characterized 1,007 new species (245 in collaboration with 

 Osbert Salvin), 135 new genera (25 with Salvin), and two new fami- 

 lies of American birds. 



Remarkable as has been his industry and his accuracy in diagnosis 

 and description, the fact should be recognized that but for his energy 

 and his skill as an organizer many regions now well known to the 

 ornithologist would doubtless still remain unexplored. 



The labors of Mr. Sclater iiave also resulted in great additions to our 

 knowledge of the geographical distribution of vertebrates. Not only 

 has he worked out many local faunas, but his generalizations upon the 

 distribution of life and the division of the globe into zoogeograijhical 

 regions have had great influence upon scientific oj)inion. He was 

 one of the pioneers in this field of investigation, and his writings 

 upon the subject have always been full of suggestion and have stim- 

 ulated many others to engage in similar inquiry. His views as to the 

 geographical distribution of birds are undoubtedly more widely 

 accepted throughout the world than those of any other authority, 

 and though, with increasing knowledge, modifications in the scheme 

 proposed b}^ him long ago will doubtless become more and more 

 numerous, his studies of geographical distribution will always be 

 considered as of fundamental importance, and the terms which he 

 suggested for the principal divisions of the earth's surface will doubt- 

 less remain in ordinary use. 



For more than thirty j^ears the chief executive officer of the most 

 wealthy and vigorous zoological society in the world, his influence 

 upon the jDrogress of natural history exploration has been verj^ great, 

 and his relations with American naturalists have always been cordial 

 and cooperative. 



