5 [Vol. xv. 



received by students of British ornithology. Nor must I omit 

 to offer a few words of thanks to the founder of the great 

 Zoological Workshop at Tring, who, in conjunction with his 

 worthy assistants, is always pouring forth a full stream of 

 contributions to our much-loved science. Their well-known 

 organ ' Novitates Zoologies ' is now in its eleventh volume 

 and requires no herald to sound its praises. May it long 

 continue to give us an account of the rich collections accu- 

 mulated at Tring, and of the excellent results derived from 

 the study of them by Mr. Kothschild, Dr. Hartert, and 

 Dr. Jordan. 



Amongst other accessions recently acquired at Tring is 

 an extensive series of birds from the northern islands of the 

 Solomon group, including Bougainville and Choiseul, trans- 

 mitted by that excellent collector Mr. Meek. A large collec- 

 tion of Angolan birds has also been lately received from 

 Dr. Ansorge, and a second is expected to follow shortly. 

 These will serve to supplement Professor Barboza du 

 Bocage's ' Ornithologie d' Angola/ which is at present our 

 principal work on the avifauna of that district. 



In conclusion, I must not forget to express our sense of 

 the great loss that has befallen Ornithology by the premature 

 death of Carlo, Freiherr von Erlanger, who had just com- 

 menced to work out the enormous' collections which he had 

 lately formed in Abyssinia and Somaliland, and whose life 

 was so wholly devoted to our branch of science. 



The Hon. Walter Rothschild, Ph.D., exhibited two 

 very interesting new Kingfishers, which he described as 

 follows : — 



Halcyon bougainvillei, n. sp. 



$ ad. Head and hind- neck to the upper back bright orange- 

 cinnamon, a narrow semicircular line of bright blue crossing 

 the nape and extending to the eyes, another broader blue 

 line from the base of the under mandible to the sides of the 

 neck. Middle portion of back, as well as the scapulars, upper 



