1 30 Bulletin of the British 



had for some years in preparation. Captain Shelley's intimate 

 acquaintance with this subject will, no doubt, render it a 

 most useful and valuable work. As soon as it is finished, we 

 must call upon him to prepare a new edition of the ' Birds of 

 Egypt.' When visiting that country last winter, I received 

 many complaints as to this useful volume being out of print. 

 I may also express a hope, which I am sure will be joined in 

 by all ornithologists, that Capt. Bendire's ' Life-Histories of 

 North-American Birds/ of which the first part was published 

 in 1892, will be continued and completed. Such a Avork is 

 just what we require for a better understanding of the Nearctic 

 Ornis. 



As regards future explorations, on which I sometimes 

 obtrude my advice, it is still abundantly manifest that every 

 piece of new land into which the traveller thrusts his way 

 will continue to supply novelties in Ornithology, as in other 

 branches of Natural History, and that the age of discovery 

 is by no means yet past. Dr. Donaldson Smith's researches 

 in Galla-land, Mr. Whitehead's expedition to the Philippines, 

 and Mr. Baron's excursions in the Andes of Northern Peru, 

 alike prove that such is not the case. From New Guinea, 

 again, and the adjacent islands, as the Members of this Club 

 well know, we still continue to receive new and most strange 

 forms of Paradise-birds. One of the most remarkable of these 

 extraordinary birds {Pteridophora alberti) has only become 

 known to us during the last Session of the Club. As the 

 mountains of New Guinea become invaded by the scientific 

 explorer, more, no doubt, remain to follow. But to attain 

 the recesses of Galla-land, the Philippines, or Peru, are tasks 

 not to be undertaken lightly. For shorter excursions which 

 might be accomplished in a winter's travel, besides the ex- 

 pedition up the Euphrates, which I suggested in last year's 

 Address, I will venture to put forward the claims of Tripoli 

 and Arabia Felix to ornithological investigation. Tripoli, 

 lying between Tunis and Egypt, presents features of con- 

 siderable interest, and though its birds would be few, yet we 

 should like to know what are to be found there. Tripoli is 

 commonly supposed to be inaccessible, owing to the fanaticism 



