Sepxejibeb 4, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



297 



was started by Professor Lockyer— in 1869— 

 he has been a frequent contributor to that 

 most important periodical. 



In 1886 he began the transfer of his pri- 

 vate collection of American bird skins to 

 the British Museum, This collection con- 

 tained 8,824 specimens, representing 3,158 

 species, belonging to the orders Passeres, 

 Picarise and Psittaci. It may be remarked 

 that when he began his collection at Oxford, 

 in 1847, he intended to collect birds of every 

 kind and from all parts of the world, but 

 after a few years resolved to confine his at- 

 tention particularly to the ornithology of 

 South and Central America and to collect 

 only in the orders just mentioned, which 

 were at that time generally less known than 

 the others and of which the specimens are 

 of a more manageable size for the private 

 collector. At the time of the beginning of 

 this transfer, which was only completed in 

 1890, he agreed to prepare some of the 

 volumes of the British Museum ' Catalogue 

 of Birds,' relating to the groups to which 

 he had paid special attention. In accord- 

 ance with this arrangement, by the expendi- 

 ture of fully two years of his leisure time 

 for each volume, he prepared the eleventh 

 volume in 1886, the fourteenth in 1888, the 

 fifteenth in 1890, and half of the nineteenth 

 in 1891. 



When the Challenger expedition started 

 around the world, in 1873, at the request 

 of his friend, the late Sir "Wyville Thomson, 

 he agreed to work out all the birds. Soon 

 after the return of the expedition, in 1877, 

 the specimens of birds collected were placed 

 in his hands, and with the assistance of his 

 ornithological friends were speedily reported 

 upon in a series of papers contributed to 

 the Zoological Society's 'Proceedings.' 

 The whole of these papers were reprinted 

 with additions and illustrations, and now 

 form part of the second volume of the 

 * Zoology ' of the Challenger expedition. 



Geography, being very closely connected 



with zoology, has always commanded Mr. 

 Sclater's hearty interest. He became a hfe 

 member of the Eoyal Geographical Society 

 in 1880, and has attended its meetings 

 regularly ever since. He has also served 

 two years on the Council, and is a member 

 of the Geographical Club. He has assisted 

 in promoting many researches in foreign 

 parts, chiefly, however, with a view to ob- 

 taining collections of natural history from 

 strange places. Among these may be es- 

 pecially mentioned Sir H. H. Johnston's 

 expedition to Kilima-Njaro in 1884 and 

 Professor Balfour's visit to Socotra in 1880. 

 He also took a leading part in sending out 

 naturalists to Kerguelens Land and Rod- 

 riguez, along with the transit-of- Venus ex- 

 peditions of 1774-75, and in many other 

 similar efforts to explore little-known parts 

 of the earth's surface. At the present time 

 he is serving on two committees of this 

 kind — one for the investigation of the fauna 

 and flora of the Lesser Antilles and the 

 other for the further exploration of the 

 fauna and flora of the Lesser Antilles and 

 the other for the further exploration of the 

 fauna of the Hawaiian Islands. In both of 

 these countries collectors are actively at 

 work. 



In 1884 he took advantage of the oppor- 

 tunity of the visit of the British Association 

 to Montreal to cross the Atlantic a second 

 time, and after the meeting to visit the 

 United States. He was not in good health 

 at that period and did little, if anything, in 

 the way of zoology. But he had the pleas- 

 ure of seeing several of his former friends, 

 especially Lawrence and Baird, and of mak- 

 ing the personal acquaintance of Mr. Ridg- 

 way, Mr. Allen, Mr. Brewster, Dr. Mer- 

 riam and many other naturalists. 



In 1887, after a continuous residence of 

 more than twenty-five years in London, he 

 gave up his residence in Elvaston Place, 

 where so many American naturalists visit- 

 ing England have received a hearty wel- 



