u 



Session, and the following were unanimously elected by 



show of hands : — 



Chairman : P. L. Sclateb., F.R.S. 



r^. ^, . f Philip Crowley. 



Vice-Chairmen< ^^ _ ^ 



L H. J. Pearson. 



Mr. W. E. De Wixton was elected a ^^lember of the 

 Committee in the place of Major A. P. Lovd, who retired by 

 rotation. 



The Chairman gave the following address : — 



Brother Members of the B. O. C. — 



On opening the Seventh Session of the British Orni- 

 thologists'' Club, I will venture to trouble you with a few 

 words. 



As the Editors of 'The Ibis'' have already remarked in 

 their preface to the volume for the present year,, one of the 

 leading ornithological events of 1898 is the completion of 

 the/ Catalogue of Birds.' The twenty-sixth volume of this 

 work, prepared by Dr. Bowdler Sharpe and^Mr. Ogilvie Grant, 

 the only one required to. finish the series, will, I am assured, 

 be laid before the Trustees at their meeting on the 22nd inst., 

 and be ready for issue very shortly afterwards. Thus, after 

 a period oT twenty-five years, this most important piece of 

 ornithological work has been brought U) a conclusion. No 

 human product is perfect, and the Catalogue has been, and 

 will be, the subject of many criticisms. One obvious defect 

 in it is its want of uniformity, the various authors having 

 been permitted, owing to the wise discretion of the authorities, 

 very liberal opportunities for the expression of their own 

 views in their respective portions, although a general ad- 

 herence to one plan has been rightly insisted upon. But 

 when the enormous amount of labour required for this work 

 and the absolute necessity of employing more than one 

 author upon such a huge task are considered, it will be 

 obvious that greater uniformity was practically unattainable. 

 In the case of the 'Catalogue of Reptiles and Batrachians,^ 

 where the series of specimens and species was not so large, 



