84 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS—SECTION D. 
species and 1800 specimens, with the full complements of eggs 
of more than 300 species.” The number of species enumerated 
in the “ Handbook” (1865) is 672 species, and the number now 
recognised about 765. 
For all the other groups of the fauna there has unfortunately 
been no John Gould, though Mr. E. Meyrick’s successful at- 
tempts to collect the Micro-Lepidoptera deserve mention. For 
these the collecting has been of a sporadic, unorganised, and 
inexhaustive character in so far as any one existing collection is 
concerned. Those who have tried to collect have not had the 
opportunity and the resources necessary to deal with one or a 
very limited number of classes or large groups in such a 
thorough manner as to be exhaustive and representative for the 
whole of Australia. 
On the return of John Gould freighted not merely with collec- 
tions, but also with facts gained by personal knowledge, British 
naturalists for the first time had a chance of studying a really 
gocd and representative collection of one group of the Aus- 
tralian fauna, namely, the mammals. This, too, was secured for 
the National Museum. First of all, Dr. J. E. Gray’s contribu- 
tion to a knowledge of the geographical distribution of the 
group made its appearance. Then came Mr. Waterhouse’s two 
admirable handbooks, and finally John Gould’s splendid mono- 
graph—evidence more than sufficient to show that previously 
it had not been so much the men that were at fault, as the 
unsatisfactory standpoint from, and the unfortunate want of 
system under which they had attempted to deal with Australian 
mammals. 
In what manner, and to what extent, the material brought 
together by the collectors, or possible collectors, enumerated in 
the foregoing list, or by others not known to me, found its way 
into British museums, is not easy in all cases to follow in detail. 
As far as I have been able to ascertain, the subjoined list pro- 
vides for some of the very numerous museums or privately- 
owned collections whose origin dates from the Pre-Victorian 
Era, and which contained Australian material, and in many 
cases type-specimens. It is necessary to point out that the 
list is provisional, and probably far from complete. 
(a) British museums dating from the Pre-Victorian Era which 
still survive in a developed form :— 
British Museum (Natural History) 
John Hunter’s Museum, afterwards the Museum of the Royal 
College of Surgeons 
Hope Collection, presented by the owner to the University of 
Oxford 
Macleay Collection, now forming part of the Macleay Museum, 
Sydney University 
(b) British collections which were disposed of by their original 
owners or their heirs by gift or by sale, or which were broken 
