Oct. 25, 1877] 



NA TURE 



S41 



SHARPENS CATALOGUE OF BIRDS 



Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Vol. I., 

 Catalogue of the Accipitres, or Diurnal Birds of Prey. 

 By R. Bowdler Sharpe. 1S74.— Vol. II., Catalogue of 

 the Striges, or Nocturnal Birds of Prey. By the same 

 Author. 1S75. — Vol. III., Catalogue of the Passeri- 

 formes, or Perching Birds. By the same Author. 

 1877. (London : Printed by order of the Trustees.) 

 T F the visitor to the British Museum will pause at the 

 foot of the staircase leading up to the Paleontological 

 Gallery and look carefully into the obscurity in the right- 

 hand corner he will perceive a door with a brass plate on 

 one side of it. On entering this door and descending 

 (with care) a flight of darkened steps, he will find 

 himself in the cellar, which has for many years consti- 

 tuted the workshop of our national zoologists. Two 

 small studies partitioned off to the left are assigned to the 

 keeper of the department and his first assistant. The 

 remaining naturalists are herded together in one apart- 

 ment commonly called the " Insect-room,'" along with 

 artists, messengers, and servants. Into this room is 

 shown everybody who has business in the Zoological 

 Department of the British Museum, whether he comes as 

 a student to examine the collections, or as a tradesman 

 to settle an account. Amid the perpetual interruptions 

 thus caused, our national zoologist has to pursue his 

 work. Some of the specimens are here, some in the 

 galleries overhead, and some are stored away in cellars 

 at a still lower depth than th.at in which he sits at work. 

 The library attached to the department contains merely 

 some of the most obvious books of reference, all others 

 have to be obtained on loan from the great national 

 depositoiy of books in the centre of the building. No 

 lights are allowed, and when the fogs of winter set in, the 

 obscurity is such that it is difficult to see any object 

 requiring minute examination. 



Under these circumstances, which we trust to see 

 materially altered when the zoological collections are 

 removed to their new home in South Kensington, it is 

 more than creditable to our zoologists that they should 

 have turned out the large amount of scientific work that 

 has issued from their department of the British Museum 

 during the past thirty years. The zoological catalogues of 

 the British Museum are weJl-known to every worker in 

 natural history ; they are not mere catalogues, but in 

 many cases able and exhaustive monographs of the 

 groups of which they treat. Projected and commenced 

 by the ;late Dr. Gray they have been energetically 

 carried on under the rule of the present head of the 

 zoological department. Dr. Giinther is, moreover, him- 

 self the author of one of the most important of the series 

 "the Catalogue of Fishes," completed in 1870, in eight 

 volumes, which is now the standard work of reference in 

 icthyology. 



Hardly less important as regards the sister science of 

 Ornithology, if brought to so successful a conclusion, will 

 be the " Catalogue of Birds," of which three volumes are 

 now before us. With youth and energy on his side Mr. 

 Sharpe may look forward to do much, but it must be 

 confessed that if he intends to handle the whole subject 

 himself he has an arduous task before him. The number 

 of recognised species of the class Aves cannot now be 



reckoned at less than from ten to twelve thousand. There 

 are many more workers in ornithology than in icthyology, 

 the literature is still more widely scattered in different ma- 

 gazines and periodicals, and the collections to be con- 

 sulted, both public and private, are much more numerous. 

 There is also no generally recognised system of classi- 

 fication to follow — such as that of the illustrio is Johannes 

 Miiller — our great master in the classification of fishes. 

 All this makes the work of a general descriptive catalogue 

 of birds one of almost herculean labour, which only length 

 of time and great devotion to the subject can hope to 

 accomplish. 



Let us now see what progress Mr. Sharpe has already 

 made towards the completion of the task. In 1S74 he 

 issued the first volume of the catalogue containing the 

 Accipitres, or diurnal birds of prey ; in 1S75 the second, 

 in which the Striges, or nocturnal birds of prey, were 

 treated of. We have now the third volume before us, in 

 which the great order usually called " Passeres," but here 

 denominated " Passeriformes," is commenced. 



Taking this as an average volume, we find about 350 

 species comprised in it. Unless, Itherefore. the present 

 rate of progress is materially accelerated, it does not 

 require much calculation to show that forty or fifty years 

 must elapse before a single worker can complete the task. 

 Even if the volumes were henceforth published annually, 

 and 500 species on the average comprised in each volume, 

 upwards of twenty years would be necessary to bring the 

 work to a conclusion, and looking to the present rapid 

 advances being made in our knowledge of birds, the older 

 volumes would be out of date long before the last were 

 ready for publication. But if the present style of work is 

 adhered to, it would seem that our last supposition is one 

 that is hardly likely to be accomplished. 



The question remains, whether any alterations can be 

 suggested that will reduce the task to one of more 

 reasonable proportions. It must be recollected that Mr. 

 Sharpe's " Catalogue " is not merely a catalogue of 

 specimens in the National Museum, but approaches in 

 several respects more nearly to a monographic essay on 

 each group treated of. Taking, for example, the present 

 volume, which contains the Coliomorpha;, or Crow-like 

 Passeres, we find, on page 4, a " synopsis " of the five 

 families into which the Coliomorpha; are divided, next a 

 definition of the two sub-families of the Corvidre, the first 

 of these families. Then follows a " key " to the thirty-nine 

 genera of Corvidse ; these genera are taken in order, and 

 a " key " to the species is placed at the head of each genus 

 Under the head of each species the synonymy is very fully 

 given ; then a lengthened description of each species in 

 its various plumages, a general account of its " habitat," 

 and finally a list of specimens of it in the British Museum, 

 with a notice of the locality and mode of origin of each 

 specimen. To prepare all this it is manifest that an 

 elaborate study of each group must be undertaken, and 

 such a study cannot be executed without much time and 

 attention. The result will be that we shall have, when 

 the task is brought to a conclusion, a general work, which 

 must become the standard book of reference for all 

 naturalists who are engaged on the class of birds. 



While the plan of work pursued by Mr. Sharpe has our 

 full approbation as a whole, there are several points of 

 detail in which we think improvements might be made. 



