PREFACE. 
Tue fifth and last volume of the ‘Hand-list ofthe Genera and 
Species of Birds’ was almost the last publication of the late 
Dr. Richard Bowdler Sharpe, whose death occurred on Christmas 
Day, 1909, about three months after its appearance. It is 
fortunate that Dr. Sharpe w:. able to see the completion of 
the ‘ Hand-list,’ whieh, it is believed, has proved of material 
service to Ornithologists; and there is some ‘satisfaction in 
remembering that he did not leave in an unfinished state a 
work which formed a fitting termination to a long period of 
distinguished service. 
It may not be without interest to state that Dr. Bowdler 
Sharpe assumed the charge of the Ornithological Collection in 
1872, as the successor of George Robert Gray. According to 
an estimate which he himself put in writing, some nine months 
before his death, the collection of Birds in the Museum then 
consisted of about 30,000 specimens ; while at the time he wrote 
he believed it to consist of about 500,000 skins and eggs. It is 
mainly owing to his unwearied efforts that so large a proportion 
of the species mentioned in this Index are available for study in 
the Museum. 
