i6d 



NA TURE 



[December 15, i! 



laid before ihe Trustees at their next meeting, and be ready 

 for issue very shortly afterwards. Thus, ailir a period of 

 twenty-five years, this most important piece of ornithological 

 work has been brought to a conclusion. No human product is 

 l)erfect, and the Catalogue has been, and will be, the subject of 

 many criticisms. One obvious defect in it is its want of 

 uniformity, the various authors having been permitted, owing 

 to the wise discretion af the authorities, very liberal opportun- 

 ities for the expression of their own views in their respective 

 portions, although a general adherence to one plan has been 

 rightly insisted upon. But when the enormous amount of 

 labour required for this work, and the absolute necessity of 

 employing more than one author upon such a huge task are 

 considered, it will be obvious that greater uniformity was 

 practically unattainable. In the case of the " Catalogue of 

 Kejuiles and Batrachians," where the series of specimens and 

 species was not so large, the herpetologists are fortunate in 

 having had the whole of the work performed upon a uniform 

 system by the indefatigable energy of a single naturalist. 



The " Catalogue of Birds," as complete in twenty-seven 

 volumes, gives us an account of 11,614 species of this class of 

 Vertebrates, divided into 2255 genera and 124 families. It has 

 been prepared by eleven authors, all members of the British 

 Ornithologists' Union, and with one exception, I believe (who 

 is not a resident in England), now or formerly members of this 

 Club. I think it will be universally allowed that we have, in 

 this case, a great and most useful undertaking brought to a 

 successful conclusion. 



Another good piece of ornithological work, likewise the 

 product of a member of this Club, which has just made its 

 appearance, is Mr. Beddard's volume on the " Structure and 

 Classification of Birds." It seems to me to be a most useful 

 manual on this subject, profusely illustrated, and full of con- 

 venient references to further information on various points 

 which it would have been impossible to compress into a single 

 volume. It will be found to be a mine of wealth to those 

 who choose to dig in it, and contains a good summary, not 

 only of the results arrived at by Mr. Beddard himself, but also by 

 Garrod and Forbes, his illustrious predecessors in the office 

 which he holds. 



Mr. A. n. Evans, whose volume upon Birds for the " Cam- 

 bridge Natural History" we have been long expecting, informs 

 me that this work is finished, except the index, and will be 

 shortly published. We shall all welcome its appearance with 

 the greatest pleasure. A second work that Mr. Evans, together 

 with Mr. Scott Wilson, is engaged upon is the " Aves 

 Hawaiienses," of which we have long been waiting for the final 

 part. This, I am assured, is now in a forward state, and is 

 likely to be issued without further delay. 



From information received from Mr. Rothschild, I am 

 pleased to be able to say that his somewhat parallel illus- 

 trated work on the " Avifauna of Laysan," of which the last 

 part was issued in 1893, will also be shortly brought to a con- 

 clusion, and that the third and final part will be issued in 

 the course of next year. Taken together, these two works will 

 form a most valuable contribution to our knowledge of the 

 Avifauna of the Northern Pacific. I must also not forget to 

 mention, amongst recent contributions to our science, the ex- 

 cellent work of Dr. Meyer and Mr. Wiglesworth on the birds 

 of Celelx;s — one of the most elalmrate and complete ornitho- 

 logical monographs on the birds of a .special district ever pre- 

 pared. Celebes, I may remark, as a debatable land between the 

 Australian and Oriental regions, was in special need of the full 

 treatment and discussion which it has here received from the 

 authors of this work. 



But the brethren of the B. O C. and their friends, I think I 

 may say, are at prosenl not less active in the field than in the 

 cabinet. We are fortunate in having with us to night the two 

 principal members of the new expedition to Socotra and 

 Southern Arabia, which will leave England on the 28th inst. 

 It will, of course, take up natural history in every branch, but 

 with Dr. Forbes and Mr. Ogilvie Grant as its leaders, and a 

 trained taxidermist in attendance, we need not fear that the 

 interests of Ornithology will in any way be overlooked. In 

 Socotra itself much has been already done, but little or nothing 

 has been ascertained ornithologically of the southern coast of 

 Arabia, and we know, from Bent's writings, that even in this 

 commonly supposed barren district, bird-life is abundant in 

 certain spots, which we trust may be within reach of the 

 Expedition. 



NO. 1520, VOL. 59] 



Besides the Socotran Expedition many other explorations by 

 various members of the B. (J. U. are in progress or in con- 

 templation. Captain Boyd Alexander, who has worked so well 

 in the Cape Verde Islands, is struggling through the middle of 

 Africa from the Cape to Cairo. Under present circumstances 

 he seems likely to come out successfully, and will, no doubt, 

 bring information on birds, if not specimens, with him. Mr. 

 Lort Phillips hopes to return to his favourite quarters in Somali- 

 land during the course of the present winter, and expects to get 

 together the .supplementary materials still required for the pre- 

 paration of his proposed work on the birds of that most in- 

 teresting country. Mr. John Whitehead, who has added so 

 much to our knowledge of the zoology of the Philippines, pro- 

 poses to return lo the same country very shortly, in order to 

 continue his researches in a field which he knows so well and in 

 which he takes such great interest. Before leaving, he has 

 placed in the hands of the editors of The Ibis a series of 

 Viiluable field-notes on the birds collected during his last journey. 

 These will appear in the forthcoming volume of our journal. 

 Mr. Alfred Sharpe, C. B., who is shortly returning to his post in 

 Nyasaland, promises to continue the employment of collectors 

 in dift'erent parts of that Protectorate, the zoology of which he, 

 following in the footsteps of Sir Harry Johnston, has already i 

 done so much to investigate. I 



Finally, I may remark that, as will be seen on turning over! 

 the pages of contents in the last volume of The Ibis, we have} 

 correspondents interested in our favourite subject in nearly every J 

 part of the world, and that the great difficulty of the editors is* 

 to compress so many valuable contributions within the compass', 

 of an annual volume. 



Before resuming my seat, I wish to say one more word. Our 

 Government, in connection with that of Egypt, has just takerj 

 possession of an enormous district in Africa, probably nearly 

 equal to half Europe in extent. It sternly warns all intruders 

 off, even when they are alleged to be of "no political influence." 

 When it comes to regulate the administration of these new 

 territories, it is to be hoped that the interests of natural history 

 will not be entirely overlooked. Although the Upper Nile dis- 

 tricts have been traversed and investigated by many well-known 

 naturalists, there is still very much to be done in these teeming 

 regions of animal-life. We Englishmen are ready and willing! 

 to undertake, by individual efforts, much work that in othen 

 countries is provided for by Slate explorers ; but it is not too"^ 

 much to expect that our Government .should at least help us by 

 providing adequate facilities and occasional assistance, and even, 

 perhaps, by contributions to the expensive process of bringing 

 the results thus acquired completely before the world. f 



THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF SHIP 

 CANALS. 

 TN a paper submitted to the American Academy of Political 

 -'• and Social Science by Mr. J. A. I'airlie, on " The Economic 

 Effects of Ship Canals," it is pointed out that while the con- 

 struction of the North Sea Canal doubled the tonnage of the 

 shipping of Amsterdam in the first six years after it was opened, 

 the effect was purely local, as will be that also of the Manchester 

 Ship Canal ; and that although the Welland, Corinth and Kiel 

 Canals have larger possibilities, their actual consequences have 

 as yet been small. With the Suez and Sault Saint Marie Canals 

 the results have been both important and far-reaching, .ind have 

 affected the trade of the world. Both these canals have led to 

 a rapid change in the material and character of the vessels used ; 

 to important changes in the sources of production; to the de- 

 velopment of the growth of wheat in the countries which they 

 serve ; and to a large reduction in the cost of bread and other 

 food in this country. 



The Suez Canal opened in 1S70 with a tralVic of 486 vessels 

 having a tonnage of 436,000 tons ; in 1891, the record year, the 

 traffic had increased 10 8,700,000 tons. The new route by 

 effecting a saving of 3000 miles on the voyage from the ports of 

 Western Europe to the East, or almost half the distance to 

 Bombay, brought about a complete revolution in the character 

 of Ihe shipping business to the East. By the Cape route coaling 

 places were few, and the facilities for coaling expensive ; the 

 consequence was that owing to this, and the large sp.ice occu- 

 pied by coal, to the exclusion of paying cargo, sailing vessels 

 were more profitable than steamers. By the canal, steamers can 

 coal at Gibraltar, Malta, Port Said and .\dcn ; consequently. 



