Vol. x.] xn 



will be of great importance as comprising all the available 

 information respecting this little-known and most interesting 

 group of birds, to which, the author has devoted particular 

 care and attention. I am also pleased to be able to say 

 that the Trustees of the British Museum have authorized 

 Mr. E.W. Oates to proceed with the printing of his Catalogue 

 of their unrivalled collection of Birds'-eggs, and that the first 

 volume of it will shortly be ready. 



As regards the expeditions to foreign countries which 

 have led, or are likely to lead, to good ornithological results, 

 I wish to call special attention to Mr. Boyd Alexander's 

 journey up the Zambesi, which has led to most interesting 

 additions to our knowledge of the avifauna of the district 

 traversed by him. The first portion of Mr. Alexander's 

 account of his collection has already appeared in ' The Ibis/ 

 and the second and final portions will be given in the suc- 

 ceeding numbers of our Journal. Of hardly less importance 

 are the recent contributions of Messrs. Rickett, Styan, and 

 La louche to the avifauna of the Chinese province of Fokkien, 

 which are now in process of publication in the same periodical. 

 They show how much there is still to be done in the little- 

 known hill-regions of China, when the latter can be safely 

 penetrated by European naturalists. 



The expedition made by Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant and 

 Dr. H. O. Forbes to Sokotra and the previously unvisited 

 island of Ab-del-Kuri has resulted in a large increase in our 

 knowledge of the zoology and botany of these localities, 

 where seven new species of birds were discovered. A full 

 account of the collections made, with many coloured plates 

 of the new species, will be shortly issued by the Committee 

 of the Liverpool Museum. 



Another imperfectly-known district, which has lately been 

 very successfully traversed, is the interior of the British 

 Protectorate of Aden, into which Messrs. A. Blayney 

 Percival and W. Dodson have lately made an expedition. 

 This has unfortunately cost the life of Mr. Dodson (a most 

 promising collector, and the younger brother of Mr. E. 

 Dodson, the naturalist who accompanied Dr. Donaldson 



