140 Notes and News. [jan. 



In 1862 he returned to England, his mmd filled with ideas and data for 

 the great works that he was later to produce. First appeared 'The Malay 

 Archipelago' his 'journal of researches' as it has been termed, dealing 

 with zoology, botany, anthropology and physical geography as only the 

 master hand can deal. Passing over the various publications on Natural 

 Selection and kindred subjects which have been covered by abler reviewers 

 in various sketches of the life and works of the great naturalist, we must call 

 attention to two works which deal more directly with ornithology, viz. the 

 'Geographical Distribution of Animals', 1876, and 'Island Life', 1881, which 

 are really the pioneer treatises on zoogeography. Here his earUer announce- 

 ment of the imaginary Une between Bali and Lombok separating the Indian 

 and AustraUan zoological regions — since known as 'Wallace's Line' — 

 is fully elaborated, while the zoological regions named by Sclater are 

 adopted and amplified. 



His ornithological communications to 'The Ibis' and other journals 

 from 1850 to 1875 are particularly noteworthy, covering various aspects 

 of the science. In one paper deaUng with the arrangement of the families 

 of birds published in 1856 he arrived at the same conclusions as to the proper 

 limitation of the Passeres from a study of external characters alone as were 

 later reached by avian anatomists. This was a matter of much gratifica- 

 tion to Wallace and, in commenting upon the work of the anatomists, he, 

 called attention to his earlier publication and emphasized the premises 

 upon which his conclusions were based. Indeed he seems to have been 

 rather impatient of minute anatomical investigations, preferring to base 

 his generalizations upon the study of external characters, and the grosser 

 relations of animals and plants to their environment. 



Wallace married, in 1866, the daughter of Mr. William Mitten and 

 spent the remainder of his life in England except for a visit to Canada and 

 the United States in 1886 and trips to Switzerland, Scotland, etc. 



His literary activity continued almost to the time of his death and his 

 last volume 'The World of Life' published in 1911, to quote from Prof. 

 Osborne "gives as clear a portrayal of his final opinions as that which his 

 first essay of 1858 portrays of his early opinions." 



In considering Wallace as an ornithologist one is impressed with the great 

 possibilities which the science contains, and the varying degrees to which 

 they are developed by different workers in the field, each according to his 

 abiUty. There is the painstaking observer to whom generalization la 

 impossible and who often fails to distinguish between that which is worthy 

 of record and that which is worthless; the specialist who devotes all his 

 resources to one limited field, species-description, anatomy, detailed-dis- 

 tribution or what not, and is often blind to anything beyond; and finally 

 the broad minded philosopher to whom ornithology is but one of many 

 fields from which to glean the facts that are stored away in his mind to form 

 the basis for those generalizations which are to revolutionize scientific 

 thought. We cannot limit ornithology to any one of these, each contributes 

 to the measure of his ability, and the fact that Alfred Russel Wallace drew 



