Vol. xi.] 24 



accomplished. It is here that the ambitious ornithologist 

 who does not fear to risk his health should betake himself. 



Gould published his ' Handbook of Australian Birds ' in 

 1865, and it is now quite time that we should have a new 

 work on the same subject, correcting errors and introducing 

 the species added to the list during the past thirty-five years. 

 We have active workers in Sydney, Melbourne, and else- 

 where in Australia, and now that the Colonies are united 

 under an Imperial Governor there will be a fine opportunity 

 to start such an enterprise. We should invite our Australian 

 friends and correspondents to lay their heads together and 

 see how this great work can best be done. 



In the Papuan Subregion there is a particularly well- 

 finished piece of work for us to build upon, viz. Count 

 Salvadori's 'Ornitologia della Papuasia,' of which the last 

 Supplement was issued in 1891. Much has been done since 

 that date, but, as I have just said, much more remains to 

 be accomplished. Pteridophora alberti, in some respects 

 the most wonderful bird in the world, was only discovered 

 in 1894, and who can say that equally or still more remark- 

 able novelties are not to be found in the unexplored interior 

 of New Guinea ? Here, indeed, there is a task to be under- 

 taken — difficult, no doubt, but to be accomplished like 

 other difficult tasks, if proper means are employed. New 

 Guinea still remains the country that aspirants for high 

 honours in ornithological science should try to explore. 



Finally there remains the Polynesian Division of the 

 Australian Region. Of what was known of the feathered 

 inhabitants of this Subregion in 1891 we have a capital 

 summary by Mr. Wiglesworth in his ' Aves Polynesise.' But 

 every island in Polynesia should be visited and its birds 

 observed and catalogued; this has as yet been by no means 

 effected. Even in the New Hebrides, as shown by Capt. 

 Farquhar and Dr. Bowdler Sharpe in the last volume of 

 ' The Ibis/ there are new species to be discovered by a 

 careful search. 



The geography of ornithology has always been one of my 

 favourite subjects, and I must ask your pardon for having 



