Ornithologists' Club. 259 



Mr. ScLATER gave the outlines o£ a selieme for a new 

 general work on Birds, which he had long planned and which 

 he proposed to bring before the next meeting of the B. O. U. 

 with the hope of inducing his brother ornithologists to 

 assist in it. Now that the great ' Catalogue of Birds ^ in the 

 British Museum was approaching completion, it was manifest 

 that the possibility of preparing a general handbook of the 

 described species of birds (something in the style of Bona- 

 parte^s ^Conspectus') was greatly increased. In Mr. Sclater's 

 opinion the best way of effecting this desirable object would 

 be to separate the handbook into six portions, corresponding 

 to the six great Geographical Regions of the earth's surface. 

 Taking the described species of birds as about 12,000, each 

 volume appropriated to a Region would relate, on an average, 

 to 2000 species. After adding to each volume 500 species 

 for those that occurred, in more than one Region, there 

 would thus be (on the average) about 2500 species to be 

 treated of in each volume. 



Mr. Sclater proposed that, besides a reference to the 

 British Museum Catalogue, only a short Latin diagnosis, a 

 few selected synonyms, and the patria should be added to the 

 name of each species ; and he considered that, if this plan were 

 adopted, five or more species could (on the average) be easily 

 got into one page : at which rate each volume would consist 

 of about 500 pages. He thought that an appropriate title 

 for such a work would be ' Avium Viventium Expositio 

 Systematica ' ; the short title being ' Aves,' formed by the 

 initial letters of these four words. The six volumes might be 

 numbered I. to VI., but would have a second title according 

 to the Region to which they related — Aves Palsearcticse, 

 Aves ^thiopicse, &c. The compilation of each volume should 

 be assigned to an ornithological expert qualified to undertake 

 the particular task. 



A DISCUSSION folloAved on Dr. Sclater's proposed scheme, of 

 which Dr. Giinther expressed approval. Dr. Bowdler Sharpe 

 stated that he would like to consider the question further 

 before it was proposed to the B. O. U. in April, and stated 



