280 BRITISH BIRDS. 



in official quarters may be gathered from the following 

 letter sent to him in 1887 by Sir Edward Bond, then the 

 Principal Librarian of the British Museum : " I do indeed 

 take an interest in your herculean task of forming and 

 arranging the Ornithological Collection, and I think 

 the- public conscience ought to be awakened to the 

 national indebtedness to you for what you have done and 

 are doing." 



In 1891 Dr. Sharpe attended, as President of Section A 

 (Zoology and Comparative Anatomy), the Second Inter- 

 national Ornithological Congress, which was held at 

 Budapest, and delivered an address on the " Classification 

 of Birds." He sent a copy to Professor Huxley, who 

 acknowledged it as follows : "I am very much obliged 

 for your ' Review,' which will be extremely valuable to 

 present and future workers. I wish something like it 

 had existed a quarter of a century ago when I was trying 

 to find my way through the chaos of Ornithological 

 Classification. It would have saved me a world of labour, 

 which I am glad to find was not altogether in vain." 



In recognition of his eminence and of the prominent 

 part he had taken in the proceedings of the Budapest 

 Congress, the Emperor of Austria conferred upon Dr. 

 Sharpe the gold medal for Art and Science, a distinction 

 reserved exclusively for those who have contributed to 

 the advancement of science or art in Austria-Hungary. 

 In the same year he received an honorary degree of 

 LL.D. from the University of Aberdeen, and an address 

 from the leading American ornithologists congratulating 

 him on the completion of the thirteenth volume of the 

 "Catalogue of Birds," which practically concluded the 

 description of the Passerine Birds of the world. They 

 expressed the warmest appreciation of his labours as an 

 ornithologist, especially of his work in connection with 

 the classification and nomenclature of the Passeres. 



The important services rendered by Dr. Sharpe to the 

 Museum and his distinguished career as an ornithologist 

 received well-merited recognition at the hands of the 



