President's Address. 109 



Fifty-five Humming Birds and 88 Toucans were purchased 

 from Mr. Gould in 1853. 



One hundred and four birds from the neighbourhood of 

 Bagdad were presented by Mr. Kenneth Lof tus. 



In 1854 was purchased through Mr. Samuel Stevens, who 

 became celebrated as a Natural History agent, a collection of 

 127 birds from New Grenada. This was the first sign of that 

 steady influx of Bogota Birds which has continued into 

 Europe down to the present day, the specimens sent during 

 the last fifty years from Colombia amounting undoubtedly to 

 millions. 



Dr. P. L. Sclater was at this time commencing his career 

 as a Zoologist, and was paying especial attention to American 

 Birds ; and he described the Bogota collections in the " Pro- 

 ceedings " of the Zoological Society for 1855 and 1857. 



In 1855, the Museum purchased from the Zoological Society, 

 at the dissolution of the Museum of the latter, 403 specimens 

 of birds, the object being to acquire the species described in 

 the voyages of the " Sulphur,' 1 " Beagle," etc., with the types 

 of Darwin's species. 



Dr. Rayner, who was on H.M.S. " Herald," presented a 

 series of forty-six birds from the Fiji Islands ; and five birds 

 from New Zealand, purchased from Mr. W. Mantell, con- 

 tained a specimen of the nearly extinct Notomis mantelli. 



Mr. Alfred Rüssel Wallace, having returned from the 

 Amazons, had departed for his expedition to the Malay 

 Archipelago, and his first collection reached England in 1857. 

 Sixty-six birds were acquired by the British Museum from 

 Lombok. Mr. G. R. Gray was permitted to describe the 

 collections in their entirety, but the first set was retained by 

 Mr. Wallace for his private use, and only the duplicates were 

 allowed to be sold. (Vide infra, pp. 110-112.) 



In 1857, too, a series of 249 birds fromN. W. Australia was 

 presented by Dr. J. R. Elsey, who had accompanied the 

 expedition of the brothers Gregory to the Victoria River. 

 Three hundred and forty-seven birds were purchased by 

 Mr. Gould in 1857, and 205 more in 1858. 



In the last-named year a small selection of birds (56) was 

 purchased from Mr. H. W. Bates' collection made on the Rio 



