PREFACE. 



THE collection of Bird skins, here catalogued, was formed 

 by the late HUGH EDWIN STRICKLAND, M.A., F.R.S., of Oriel 

 College, Oxford, and Deputy Reader of Geology in that Uni- 

 versity, who at the age of forty-two years was killed by a 

 railway train whilst in the pursuit of his scientific labours on 

 the 14th of September, 1853. Begun by him when yet a boy, 

 for the label of one of the specimens (No. 3051 a) bears date 

 August, 1822, the formation of this collection continued to be 

 a great object of interest with him throughout his life; but 

 most of the specimens obtained by him prior to 1833 were 

 mounted and placed in cases in the hall at Apperley Court, near 

 Tewkesbury, his father's seat, where they still are. 



In the year last mentioned, however, his brother -Algernon 

 Strickland, a midshipman in the Royal Navy, visiting the Cape 

 of Good Hope, Mauritius, and Southern India, obtained about 

 90 specimens now in the collection ; and in the winter of 

 1835 36, STRICKLAND himself made a voyage to Greece and 

 Asia Minor, where he collected upwards of 100 others. 



In 1838 STRICKLAND largely increased his collection by 

 purchasing about 1200 specimens from his cousin Nathaniel 

 Constantine Strickland. Another cousin, Arthur Strickland, 

 purchased at the same time some 500 additional specimens, 

 which also became the property of H. E. STRICKLAND in 1850. 

 The specimens thus acquired form no inconsiderable part of 

 the whole collection. They had been originally obtained, as 

 I am informed, partly from captains of merchantmen, and partly 

 from dealers. 



