Vol-^^XVIIJ Allen, Richard Bawdier Sharpe. 127 



siderable lenojth, while for fifteen years he was the recorder for the 

 Class Aves in the 'Zoological Record,' beginning with the year 

 1870 and ending with 1908, with two considerable periods of inter- 

 mission when the post was filled by others. 



In addition to this long list of technical works and papers, he 

 also found time to write various popular works on birds, as the 

 bird volume of Cassell's 'New Natural History' (Aves, 1882), 

 'Birds in Nature' (4to, 1888), the bird volume of the 'Concise 

 Knowledge Library' (8vo, 1897), 'Sketch-book of British Birds' 

 (8vo, 1898), 'Wonders of the Bird World' (8vo, 1898), and a two- 

 volume edition of Gilbert White's 'Natural History and Anticjuities 

 of Selborne' (1900), besides lesser contributions of a similar char- 

 acter. 



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 ISIuseum 

 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 Twee- 

 dale collections, and others. Many others were acquired by pur- 

 chase through the influence of his enthusiastic and persistent appeals 

 to the Trustees of the Museum. 



His curatorial duties naturally absorbed a large amount of his 

 time and limited his opportunities for research and literary work, so 

 that, it is currently stated, a large part of the 'Hand-list' was written 

 at his home after a day of toil at the Museum.^ 



Dr. Sharpe's scientific interests were rather closely restricted 

 to the class of birds, but here he was easily a master, and his in- 

 fluence upon the progress of ornithology during his lifetime would 

 be hard to measure, and in certain ways was undeniably preemi- 

 nent. In his knowledge of the external characters of birds, and his 

 ability to remember and recognize species offhand, he was prob- 

 ably without a peer; but he was not a deep student of the anatomy 



1 Since the above was written the January, 1910, issue of 'The Emu' has been 

 received, containing a letter from Dr. Sharpe to one of the editors, in wlaich Dr. 

 Sharpe says: "I seldom have a moment to myself, and have to do most of my work 

 at home, and scarcely an evening that I do not work from 8 p. m. till 2 and 3 a. m. 

 I have finished Vol. V of the 'Handlist ' at last, thank God! " 



