

PREFACE. 



Ox completing the Fifty-fourth Volume of 'The 

 Ibis ' by the issue of the Two-huudred-and-tenth 

 Number, and thus brino:ing the Ninth Series of our 

 Journal to a close, the Editors have little to say 

 except to thank the Contributors for the unfailing 

 support which has been received from them during 

 the past six years, and to express a hope that a 

 similar assistance may be continued to their suc- 

 cessor. Beofinnino" with the modest number of four 

 hundred pages, ' The Ibis ' has now gradually in- 

 creased to double its primitive size, and the volume 

 has become a formidable handful which should, 

 perhaps, be rather diminished than increased, Eut 

 we leave this question to the Editor of the Tenth 

 Series, who is not altogether inexperienced in such 

 matters. 



The most interesting event in Ornithology that has 

 occurred in 1912 has been, we think, the starting of 

 the Second Expedition to the Snow Mountains of New 

 Guinea, under the leadership of Mr. Wollaston. which, 

 if the arrangements made can be properly carried out, 



