PREFACE. 



The Editors have succeeded in compressing the third 

 volume of the Eighth Series of ' The Ibis ' into a 

 somewhat smaller compass than that of some of the 

 previous years. Six hundred and fifty pages of 

 letterpress with twelve or thirteen plates are quite 

 as much as can be conveniently handled when bound, 

 and in future volumes it is hoped that it will not be 

 found necessary to exceed these limits. 



Our readers, we think, will allow that there is at 

 the present time an abundant supply of contributions 

 from nearly every part of the world on geographical 

 ornithology ; but there seems to be some danger of 

 this enticing branch of our Science becoming a little 

 too prominent in the pages of 'The Ibis,' and we 

 venture to hope that greater attention may in future 

 be given to the claims of the Anatomy, Pterylography, 



