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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 



merit. Among the more useful of these are articles 

 on the deer, rhinoceroses and African monkeys. He 

 is now publishing, in connection with Mr. Oldfield 

 Thomas, a magnificently illustrated work, entitled 

 ' The Book of Antelopes, ' the second volume of which 

 is already well advanced." 



Eemarkable as have been his industry 

 and his accuracy in diagnosis and descrip- 

 tion, his energy and skill as an organizer 

 have been equally noteworthy . But for him 

 many regions now well known to the orni- 

 thologist would doubtless still remain un- 

 explored. 



His labors have also resulted in extensive 

 additions to our knowledge of the geograph- 

 ical distribution of vertebrates. ISTot only 

 has he worked out many local faunas, but 

 his generalizations upon the distribution of 

 life and the division of the globe into zoo- 

 geographical regions have had great influ- 

 ence. He was one of the pioneers in this 

 field of investigation, and his writings upon 

 the subject have always been full of sugges- 

 tion and have stimulated many others to 

 engage in similar inquiry. His views as to 

 the geographical distribution of birds are 

 undoubtedly more widely accepted through- 

 out the world than those of any other au- 

 thority, and though, with increasing knowl- 

 edge, modifications in the scheme proposed 

 ■ by him long ago will doubtless become 

 more and more numerous, his studies of 

 geographical distribution will always be 

 considered as of fundamental importance, 

 and the terms which he suggested for the 

 principal divisions of the earth's surface 

 will doubtless remain in ordinary use. 



For more than thirty years the chief ex- 

 ecutive officer of the most wealthy and 

 vigorous zoological society in the world, his 

 influence upon the progress of natural his- 

 tory exploration has been very great, and 

 his relations with American naturalists 

 have always been cordial and cooperative. 



Notwithstanding the great bulk of his 

 technical publications, he has for four dec- 

 ades been prominent in the social activities 



of scientific London and a noteworthy figure 

 in the midst of every important scientific 

 gathering. 



A complete analytical bibliography of his 

 writings, including nearly 1,300 titles, will 

 soon be published as one of the bulletins of 

 thelJ. S. National Museum. This will make 

 available to American naturalists all the 

 results of the work of this eminent scholar, 

 who has done for the ornithology of Cen- 

 tral and South America what ISTuttall, "Wil- 

 son, Audubon, Baird, Eidgway, Allen, Mer- 

 riam and their associates have done for that 

 of the northern continent. 



Philip Lutley Sclater was born November 

 4, 1829, at 'Tangier Park,' in Hampshire, 

 the residence of his father, William Lutley 

 Sclater, Esq., and his boyhood was passed 

 chiefly at ' Hoddington House,' another 

 estate in the same county belonging to his 

 father, who died there in 1885 at the age of 

 ninety-seven. 



In beautiful Hampshire, not far from the 

 home of Gilbert White at Selborne, he ac- 

 quired, early in life, a love for outdoor life 

 and a taste for the study of birds. 



At the age of ten he was sent to a well- 

 known school at Twyford, near Winchester. 

 In 1842 he went to Winchester College, and 

 in 1845 was elected scholar of Corpus 

 Christi College, Oxford. Being at that 

 time under sixteen years of age, he was not 

 called into residence at the University until 

 Easter, 1846. 



At Oxford his attention was given princi- 

 pally to mathematics, though his spare 

 time was occupied by the study of birds 

 and of the excellent series of natural his- 

 tory books then in the Kadcliife Library. 



Hugh E. Strickland, the well-known or- 

 nithologist, who was at that time resident 

 in Oxford as reader in geology, became in- 

 terested in young Sclater and took him 

 under his protection. At Strickland's cham- 

 bers he met John Gould, shortly after his 

 return from his great jqurney to Australia. 



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