1888.] Adrlross, 63 



each is procurable, the season, price, and prohahle quantity, and whether 

 the supply is permanent or only casual. At first only those products 

 that are of value and occur in marketable quantities will be examined, 

 and in this way much useful work can be accomplished. Collections 

 have already been made for and despatched to Russia, Italy, Belgium, 

 France, and the Australian colonies. In connection with the Museum, 

 I may be allowed to express the hope that steps may be taken to centra- 

 lise within its walls the direction of the scientific research now fit- 

 fully undertaken in India. It has even now within its enclosurfe the 

 Greological Department and Museum, and the nucleus of an Imperial 

 archaeological collection, and within reasonable distance the magni- 

 ficent herbarium of the Royal Botanical Gardens, but, if the Directors 

 of these great branches of scientific inquiry became associated with the 

 Board of Trustees and undertook the supervision of similar efforts in 

 other Provinces, the work could be better apportioned and more effi- 

 ciently and economically carried out, and neither friction nor interference 

 with local wants or prejudices need necessarily follow. 



Vertehrata. — We have in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society' 

 a paper on the gnu-goat (Budorcas taxicolor, Hodgs.), by Mr. A. O. Hume 

 and papers on the birds of Perak and on some birds in the Hume col- 

 lection by Mr, Sharpe. In the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History,^ 

 there are papers by Mr. 0. Thomas on two new squirrels and a new rat 

 from N". Borneo, as well as a reprint from our Journal of the article on 

 Mammals from Northern Afghanistan which I have previously men- 

 tioned. Amongst those bearing on Asiatic ornithology in the 'Ibis,' 

 mention may be made of one, by Dr. M. Menzbier, on some new birds 

 from the palsearctic region, and of three, by Mr. Seebohm, on the birds 

 of the Loo-choo islands, on the bull-finches of Siberia and Japan, and 

 on Fhasianus colchicus and its allies. Mr. Gurney contributes a paper 

 on Falco hahylonicus and Falco harharus and Mr. Styan describes a new 

 Trochalopteron from Yunnan, and gives an account of the birds of 

 Foochow. Mr. Hargett describes a new woodpecker, Gecinus gorii from 

 Southern Afghanistan. Another paper enumerates the birds collected by 

 Prejevalski in his last expedition in Central Asia ; and Mr. R. Bowdler 

 Sharpe contributes papers on the birds of Fao, Bushire, and N". Borneo. 

 Little has been done for our Indian species beyond the continuation of Mr. 

 Murray's ' Avi- fauna of British India,' of which the third part has ap- 

 peared. This work, as previously stated, is intended to correct and 

 bring up to the present level of our knowledge Jerdon's well-known 

 * Birds of India.' It will serve as a very useful guide to bridge over the 

 period between its issue and the publication of the results of the exami- 

 nation of Mr. A. 0= Hume's unequalled collection of Indian birds, now 



