to offer you a few remarks on. the present state and progress 

 of the Journals devoted to the special interests of the Class 

 Aves throughout the civilized world, and shall begin with 

 the three which, I think, must be acknowledged by all of us 

 to be the leading authorities on the subject, viz. — (taking 

 them in the order of seniority), the 'Journal fiir Ornithologie' 

 of Berlin, ' The Ibis ' of London, and ' The Auk ' of the 

 United States of America. 



" The ' Journal fiir Ornithologie ^ was founded by the 

 veteran ornithologist Dr. Jean Cabanis in 1853, and carried on 

 by him with unfailing success for a period of forty-one years. 

 In 1894 it passed into the possession of the '' Allgemeine 

 deutsche ornithologische G-esellschaft,' and has since that 

 date been not less successfully conducted for that Society 

 by our Honorary Member, Dr. Anton Reichenow, who is 

 personally well known to many of us. The ' Journal fiir 

 Ornithologie' is, I may fairly say, to a considerable extent 

 occupied with contributions relating to the Avifauna of 

 Central Europe, but, on glancing over its pages, excellent 

 articles will be found throughout the work which relate to 

 the birds of othei: parts of the world. The newly-founded 

 German colonies have naturally attracted a large share of 

 attention in the Fatherland, and Dr. Reichenow's memoirs 

 on the birds of Togo-land, on the avifauna of German 

 East Africa and on that of Kaiser- Wilhelras-land, recently 

 published in the ' Journal,' may be mentioned specially as 

 being of very great importance. But the German ornitho- 

 logists by no means confine themselves to the range of 

 their own colonies. German collectors range over the 

 whole world, and German taxidermists are to be found in 

 nearly every museum as well of the New World as of the 

 Old, and not unfrequently become contributors to the 

 information collected in their national Journal of Ornitho- 

 logy. In other branches of our subject, such as Anatomy, 

 Pterylosis, Nomenclature, and Classification, the ' Journal 

 fiir Ornithologie ' will be found to be likewise replete with 

 information. 



•^To sing uur own praises is a somewhat delicate task. 



