3 [Vol. xiii. 



with us here to-night. Faithful and true, he promises that 

 the scientific report on the birds met with during his 

 journey shall be published in ' The Ibis * when completed. 

 Looking towards the Eastern horizon I am not aware that 

 our Russian friends, who are always on the alert, have lately 

 made great advances, but fresh collections, I am told, are 

 always coming to St. Petersburg from the " Far East," and 

 now that the great Siberian railway is open, the facilities of 

 communication in that direction will be vastly improved. 

 I can recommend no more easy nor more interesting excursion 

 for some of our younger Members than to run out to Lake 

 Baikal, or some other good station in North-eastern Asia, 

 early in the year and watch the migrants as they come up 

 from the South. There is, of course, in the Russian and 

 Chinese Empires an enormous field for future ornithological 

 travellers. We have lately received for 'The Ibis' an 

 excellent paper by Capt. H. J. Walton, on the Birds of 

 the City of Pekin, which is almost a new place for the 

 collector. 



Whether Egypt is best referable to the Palsearctic or to the 

 Ethiopian Region is perhaps a little doubtful. I am, however, 

 rather inclined to the Palsearctic view, and, before quitting 

 this heading, I wish again to emphasize the statement that a 

 new volume on the ' Birds of Egypt ' is a great desideratum 

 in Ornithology. Capt. Shelley's excellent work on this 

 subject (now out of print) was published in 1872 and a new 

 edition is much required. It was the intention of the late 

 Dr. Anderson to have supplied this want, when he had 

 finished the Mammals and Fishes of Egypt, and we have 

 great hopes of being able to induce the Egyptian authorities 

 to meet this much pressing claim in the shape of a fourth 

 volume of the series projected by Dr. Anderson. 



II. Oriental Region. 



Little has been done in the Oriental Region, vast as it is, 

 to which it is necessary to call attention on the present 

 occasion, but, in spite of the numerous collectors who have 

 ransacked so many spots of this widely-extended fauna, 



