September 4, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



293 



nursery, and in the accumulation of herba- 

 rium, museum and library material. 

 Through a cooperative agreement entered 

 into with Columbia University, the her- 

 barium and botanical library of the Univer- 

 sity will be deposited with the Garden, and 

 most of the research and graduate work of 

 the University in botany will be carried on 

 in the Museum Building. 



The endowment fund has been materially 

 increased, and about 430 persons have be- 

 come annual members of the Garden, con- 

 tributing ten dollars a year each to its sup- 

 port. The publication of a Bulletin has 

 been commenced by the issue, in April, of 

 the first number of Volume I. 



N. L. Brittok. 



New Yoek Botanical Garden. 



PHILIP LUTLEY SCLATEB. 



Philip Lutley Sclatek, Secretary of the 

 Zoological Society of London, is one of the 

 best known of zoologists. Few men now 

 living have contributed so much as he to 

 systematic ornithology, and none have done 

 so much in the identification and descrip- 

 tion of new forms from the "Western Conti- 

 nent. 



His work has been largely in connection 

 with the luxuriant fauna of Neotropical 

 America, little known at the time when he 

 began his researches. Nearly every year 

 since he began work, in 1853, his correspond- 

 ents in tropical America have laid at his 

 feet new wealth in the form of collections 

 from regions hitherto unexplored. 



He has characterized 1,067 new species 

 (245 in collaboration with Osbert Salvin) 

 and 135 new genera (25 with Salvin), as 

 well as two new families of American birds. 



Mr. Eobert Ridgway writes: 



' ' The name of Sclater is so mucli a part of Neotropi- 

 cal ornithology that any knowledge of the latter 

 without equal familiarity with the former would he 

 impossible. Certainly no other name occurs so 

 frequently nor ranks more highly in the literature 



pertaining to the birds of tropical America. Covering 

 a period of more than forty years of unceasing activity, 

 chiefly devoted to this, his favorite geographical field, 

 the importance of Mr. Sclater's contributions to the 

 ornithology of the Neotropical region can hardly be 

 over-estimated. Other ornithologists, it is true, have 

 rendered important services so far as portions of 

 America are concerned, as Salvin for Mexico and 

 Central America, and Lawrence for the same area and 

 the West Indies, while the former has been associated 

 with Sclater in the preparation of various mono- 

 graphic papers, the ' Nomenclator Avium Neotropi- 

 calium ' and other works ; but only Sclater has 

 covered impartially the Neotropical region as a whole. 



"Mr. Sclater's treatment of ornithological subjects 

 is concise and conservative —more so, frequently, than 

 some of us would wish it to be. Some of us on this 

 side of the Atlantic differ with him in nomenclatural 

 matters and regarding the status and discrimination 

 of subspecies or geographical races ; but in these 

 respects his methods are those of a particular school, 

 which we are pleased to call tte ' old, ' and which 

 few, if any, of his countrymen have forsaken. We 

 fondly hope, however, that the conservatism of our 

 English brethren may sometime yield to the sound 

 principles upon which the so-called ' American ' 

 schools have based their ' innovations, ' and the com- 

 plete harmony of methods between ornithologists of 

 the two countries, so much to be desired, be thereby 

 established. 



" Sclater," writes Merriam, " is a good type of the 

 industrious, systematic natuarlist. His official and 

 personal energy brought him a wealth of new ma- 

 terial. This he described in an endless series of 

 papers on new species and new genera. Then, as ad- 

 ditional specimens and additional species came in, 

 he promptly published more comprehensive treatises 

 in the form of synopses of genera or larger assem- 

 blages. And later, when still ampler material cast 

 new light on the subject, he, in numerous instances, 

 revised the same groups over again, correcting early 

 errors, adding new species and bringing the history 

 of the groups down to date. These synopses and 

 monographic revisions are the most important and 

 useful of Sclater's contributions to science. Their 

 number is amazing. In addition to all these, his 

 ' Nomenclator Avium Neotropicalium ' and 'Argen- 

 tine Ornithology ' have come to be indispensable to 

 the student of South American birds. And finally, 

 as a fitting climax to this remarkable series, he has 

 lived to erect his own monument in the admirable 

 volumes he has contributed to the British Museum's 

 ' Catalogue of Birds. ' 



" He has written many important papers concern- 

 ing mammals, illustrated by colored plates of high 



