NOTES AND QUERIES. 343 
The British Association. -- The Fifty-fifth Annual Meeting of the 
British Association will commence on Wednesday, September ‘th, 1885 
at Aberdeen. The President-EKlect is the Right Hon. Sir Lyon Playfair, 
K.C.B., M.P., Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S., who will take the place of Lord 
Rayleigh. The Vice-Presidents are His Grace the Duke of Richmond and 
Gordon, K.G., Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen, the Right Hon. 
the Earl of Aberdeen, LL.D., Lord-Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire, the Right 
Hon. the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, F.R.S., James Matthews, Lord 
Provost of the City of Aberdeen, Prof. Sir William Thomson, F.R.S., 
Alexander Bain, M.A., LL.D., Rector of the University of Aberdeen, the 
Very Rev. Principal Pirie, D.D., Vice-Chancellor of the University ot 
Aberdeen, Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S., Pres.Z.S., Director of the Natural 
History Museum. General Treasurer: Prof. A. W. Williamson, F.R.S., 
University College, London, W.C. General Secretaries: Capt. Douglas 
Galton, C.B., F.R.S., A. G. Vernon Harcourt, F.R.S. Secretary: Prof. 
T. G. Bonney, F.R.S. Local Secretaries for the Meeting at Aberdeen : 
J. W. Crombie, M.A., Angus Fraser, M.A., M.D., Prof. G. Pirie, M.A. 
Local Treasurers for the Meeting at Aberdeen: John Findlater, Robert 
Lumsden. The Officers for Section D, Biology, are—President: Prof. 
W.C. McIntosh, F.R.S. Vice-Presidents: Prof. I. Bayley Balfour, F.R.S., 
Prof. J. S. Burdon Sanderson, F.R.S. Secretaries: W. Heape, J. Duncan 
Matthews, F.R.S.E., Howard Saunders, F.L.S., F.Z.8. (Recorder), H. 
Marshall Ward, M.A. 
The Hume Collection in the British Museum.—The fine collection of 
Natural History specimens so generously presented to the British Museum 
by Mr. Allan Hume, C.B., has arrived from India, and has been deposited 
in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. It is by far the 
largest private collection yet seen in any country, and illustrates in the 
fullest possible manner the avifauna of the British Asian Empire, com- 
mencing with Baluchistan on the west, and comprising the whole of the 
Indian peninsula and Ceylon, the Burmese Countries and Tenasserim, 
extending down the Malayan peninsula to Singapore. The collection 
comprises about 63,000 bird-skins in excellent condition, and all labelled 
with particulars of locality, date, &c., 18,500 eggs, and about 500 nests. 
In addition to these there are some 400 skins of mammals, including 
several undescribed species, and many of great interest from their rarity or 
local distribution. Great credit is due to Mr. R. B. Sharpe for the energy 
which he has displayed in proceeding to India during the hot season, and 
the expedition with which he packed and sent home this enormous collection, 
thus saving it from exposure to another rainy season at Simla, which in all 
probability would have destroyed a great number of skins. The Trustees 
of the British Museum may well be congratulated upon the acquisition of so 
