CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS 

 ox OPEXIXCx THE THIRD SESSIOX 



OF THE 



BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' CLUB, 1894. 



yir remarks on opening the Third Session of the B. 0. C. 

 have been unavoidably postponed uncil the pi'esent Meeting ; 

 but I now propose to address to you a few words on some of 

 tlie recent events in Ornitholosv. 



^CJ 



Section I, New Discoveries. 



More than forty years ago, as I well recollect^ ray former 

 friend and master in Ornithology, Hugh Strickland, used to 

 complain how hard it was to find a bird really new to Science. 

 Strickland was little aware of the enormous number of new 

 species and new forms, some of them of the most extra- 

 ordinary^ character, -which have been constantly discovered 

 and described year by year since that period. At the present 

 epoch it must be allowed that, in the two great Northern 

 Regions of the earth's surface, there remains little more to 

 be done in the way of discovery of new species. But in 

 the Oriental, Australian, Ethiopian, and Neotropical Ke- 

 gions, as fast as new localities are visited, new forms of 

 avian life still continue to present themselves. For ex- 

 ample, ]\Ir. Whitehead's researches in the highlands of the 

 Philippines, and Mr. Everett's labours in the Natuna Islands 

 alike show that the ornithological riches of the Oriental 

 Region are by no means exhausted. In Australia proper, 

 perhaps, little more in the way of novelty is to be expected, 

 but in the Papuan Snbregion the already rich Ornis is 

 s>till receiving most remarkable additions as new uvea- are 

 explored. "Within the past few months two new forms of 



