President's Address. 101 



did all the work. The subject was regarded with less serious- 

 ness in those old days, and the last-named author doubtless 

 imagined that his English names were of quite as much 

 importance as Latin ones. At any rate, when it came to the 

 publication of the ( Supplements,' that of the 'Index Ornitlw- 

 logicus ' followed close upon the Supplement of the e General 

 History,' and in the second one, Latham held the field, and 

 a considerable number of "New Holland" birds bear his 

 names. These Australian species were in great part described 

 from Watlinof's Drawings above-mentioned. 



At the same time it must be remembered that Latham was 

 himself an observer and collector. He describes some sj^ecies 

 from his own collection, and in the earliest catalogue of 

 British Birds in the Museum, that by Leach in 1816, several 

 specimens are said to have been presented by Latham. 

 Another thing to be noted, as showing the influence of his 

 work, is that the names of several of our British species are 

 still known by the titles he bestowed upon them. 



Another man whose work exercised considerable influence 

 on British Ornithology was Colonel Montagu, the author of 

 the ' Ornithological Dictionary.' He possessed a private 

 collection of birds, procured chiefly in Devonshire and Wilt- 

 shire. This collection passed into the British Museum, and 

 formed the basis of Dr. Leach's ' Systematic Catalogue ' of 

 1816. 



In this little work (printed on one side of the page only) 

 Leach published some fifteen new generic and specific names, 

 some of which are recognised to the present day, viz. : 

 Melizophilus, Squatarola, Pavoncella, etc. A coj)y of this 

 scarce book exists among the tracts in the Natural History 

 Museum, and from this a reprint was made by the Willughby 

 Society in 1882, edited by the late Osbert Salvin, F.R.S. If, 

 as the latter suggests, it was intended as a label-catalogue for 

 the specimens, this fact may account for the rarity of the 

 pamphlet, as it would be intended for use in the British 

 Museum only. I only know of one other copy, which is in the 

 possession of Professor Newton at Cambridge. 



The collection of the British Museum, with the acquisition 

 of the Montagu collection, was beginning to make some better 



