3 [Vol. xxxvii. 



been making explorations and collections in Java and Siam ; 

 and the Tring Museum is receiving collections from the 

 higher mountains of the islands of the Louisiade group made 

 by the Eichhorns, relations of A. S. Meek, who himself 

 unfortunately is on the sick-list. The Eichhorns are about 

 to explore the Hydrographer Range of Mountains in British 

 New Guinea. In Africa Dr. Van Sommeren is making 

 fine collections in East Africa ; while Captain Louis Thomp- 

 son is doing good work in the northern part of the newly 

 obtained S.W. African Protectorate. 



" In Great Britain Mr. A. H. Evans's ' Birds of Britain' 

 is a useful handbook of a popular nature. Mr. Ogilvie- 

 Grant is to be congratulated on the completion of the 

 Report of the two New Guinea Expeditions. The forth- 

 coming monograph of the Bustards by Mr. Grant and Major 

 Jones promises to be an epoch-making book on the subject. 

 Many interesting articles have appeared on the birds ob- 

 served by our members and others at Gallipoli, in Meso- 

 potamia, at Salonika, and on the western front during the 

 progress of the campaign. 'British Birds' continues to 

 flourish, and Mr. Gregory Mathews's ' Birds of Australia ' 

 has reached the completion of the fifth volume. Mr. Ridgway 

 has issued the seventh volume of his very important ' Birds 

 of North and Middle America/ containing the Cuckoos, 

 Parrots, and Pigeons ; it is to be regretted that he splits up 

 the American members of the genus Columba into a number 

 of smaller genera. The first volume of Mr. Chubb's ' Birds 

 of British Guiana' is a most useful book. 



" My present address is very short and uninteresting^ but 

 I must ask you to forgive its deficiencies as, owing to the 

 war, there is so little ornithological news." 



The Chairman exhibited a specimen of the Carolina 

 Crake Avhich he had purchased with the collection of the 

 Rev. H. H. Slater, of ' Transit of Venus ' fame, and which 

 bears on the label the following inscription : — " Crex porzana^ 

 Spotted Crake. $ , Norfolk, 1877." 



