542 DISCUSSION ON RESULTS RECORDED 



made a few notes which may serve as a prelude to the discussion 

 on the I'e.sults recorded in the work published by Osbert Salvin 

 and myself — the Biologia Oentrali-Americana, 



Salvin and I were at Canibiidge together, and after leaving 

 the University in 1857 Salvin visited Guatemala to report upon 

 the nuts of a Palm which it was thought might be used in the 

 manufacture of candles. The nuts, however, proved useless for 

 practical purposes, so he devoted some months travelling about 

 the country collecting Birds, Insects, and Plants. Salvin sub- 

 sequently made three further expeditions to Guatemala with the 

 sole object of continuing his Natural History pursuits — in 1859, 

 and in 1861, on which occasion I accompanied him, returning 

 after about a year's absence, and again in 1865, when he also 

 visited Panama. We trained and employed many of the natives 

 to assist us, and some of them continued to send us specimens 

 for over 30 years. 



Salvin and I were immensely struck and delighted with the 

 richness and variety of the fauna and flora found in a ti'opical 

 country, but it was the revolution in thought produced by the 

 publication of the ''Origin of Species' by C. Darwin, and the 

 promulgation of the theory of evolution, which gave such an 

 intense interest to the subject. I well remember the violent 

 opposition with which this new doctrine was received, and it is 

 difiicult for those of the present generation to realize the bitter- 

 ness with which this new idea was received by all classes. 

 Salvin and I had both read the ' Origin ' before our visit to 

 Guatemala, but it was not till after our return that in working 

 out our collections the truth of the new doctrine was fully 

 realized. From that time we took a deeper interest in all our 

 work, and now many problems that had puzzled us were solved. 

 Although we had written several papers in the P. Z. S. and Ent. 

 Soc. Trans., we were still without any idea of publishing the result 

 of our travels in a more collected foi'm. 



In 1876 it was suggested that the ' Biologia' should be under- 

 taken, and three years after the first part appeared. It was then 

 estimated that the whole of the Zoology might be completed in 

 60 parts, but owing to the ever-increasing material this subject 

 alone occupied 215 parts. 



After we had been at work for some time we found ourselves 

 very short of Mexican and North-American material wherewith 

 to compare our Central American specimens, and to remedy this, 

 in 1888 I made an expedition to Mexico and spent some months 

 collecting in various parts of the country. For the Birds of 

 North America I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase the 

 Henshaw collection, which was very rich in species from the 

 United States, and which Mr. Ridgway kindly examined for me, 

 critically revising the names and localities. Up to this time 

 collections of North- American birds in this country vfere very 

 meagi'e. 



A few words on the physical aspect of the country are perhaps 



