PREFACE. 



A Preface is, we suppose, necessary for the thirty- 

 second, as for the preceding volumes of ' The Ibis,' 

 but we need not detain our readers long on the 

 present occasion. 



It will perhaps be observed that the second volume 

 of the Sixth Series of this Journal is not quite so 

 bulky as those which immediately precede it ; but it 

 will be allowed, we trust, that it does not fall behind 

 them in interest or variety. By the list of contri- 

 butors it will be seen that the Editor has received 

 valuable support from many of the older members of 

 the British Ornithologists' Union, for which he begs 

 leave to tender them his most hearty thanks. He 

 would, however, venture to suggest that some of the 

 younger members, by whose names the roll of the 

 B. O. U. is annually increased, should take a more 

 decided interest in our favourite subject. It is diffi- 

 cult, no doubt, and becomes every year more difficult, 

 to find new ground to work and new birds to describe ; 

 but in the Anatomy, Osteology, and Pterylography of 

 Birds there is still an ample field open, and one which 

 will yield abundant fruits to energy and experience. 

 It should be always recollected that, of the twelve 

 thousand birds known to science, eleven thousand or 



