?Q2 Notes and News. [October 



During the present year the British Museum has received three espec- 

 ially noteworthy accessions to its collection of birds. "The first is the 

 celebrated collection of American Passeres, formed by P. L. Sclater, Esq., 

 F. R. S., in the course of the last thirty years. It contains most of the ma- 

 terial on which the majority of the publications of this ornithologist were 

 based, and is, perhaps, the first collection of its kind that was made, at 

 least in this country, with a clear understanding of the great importance 

 of well-ascertained localities." The second is the celebrated Salvin- 

 Godman collection. "Formed with the same care as the Sclater collection, 

 it surpasses this latter as regards the number of specimens, illustrating 

 more fully the geographical range and diversity of plumage of each species. 

 Besides the specimens obtained by the donors themselves during their 

 travels in Central America, or by collectors who worked for them, it con- 

 tains a very complete series of South American birds." The third is the 

 immense Hume collection of Asiatic birds, which has lately been trans- 

 ferred from Simla under the personal superintendence of Mr. Sharpe 

 himself. This, doubtless the largest private collection of birds ever 

 formed, filled eighty-two large cases when packed for transportation, and 

 numbers about 63,000 skins, besides 300 nests, and 18,600 eggs. About 

 2000 species are included, so that in the average each species is represent- 

 ed bv a series of about thirty skins. Of the considerable number of 

 duplicates that will be eliminated, a complete set has to be transmitted, 

 by the wish of the donor, to the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Har- 

 vard College. 



