45 [Vol. xxv. 



present generation who visits the Bird-B,oom of the Natural 

 History Museum can have any conception of the difficulties 

 under which work was carried on in the old days at the 

 British Museum, Bloomsbuiy, the underground dungeons 

 which were used as work-rooms being small and very 

 insufficiently lighted. The first volume of the Catalogue, 

 containing the Birds of Prey, was completed and published 

 by the Trustees in 1874, and the whole work, contained 

 in 27 thick volumes, took 24 years to finish, having been 

 only completed in 1898. Eleven different specialists took 

 part in this laborious undertaking : Dr. Sharpe himself 

 contributed no less than eleven whole volumes and portions 

 of three others, and edited or assisted in the preparation of 

 the remainder. These volumes contain a description of 

 every known species of bird up to the date of publication, 

 and Dr. Sharpe was justly proud of his large share in the 

 work which he himself had initiated. Only those who have 

 attempted a similar task can appreciate the enormous 

 amount of labour and research, the days and nights of 

 continuous toil, which the production of even one of these 

 volumes entailed. 



Dr. Sharpe remained Senior AssistantintheNatural History 

 Museum till November 1895, when he was promoted to 

 be Assistant-Keeper in charge of the Vertebrate Section of 

 the Zoological Department, a post which he retained till his 

 death. 



During the many years occupied in the preparation of 

 the ' Catalogue of Birds ' he found time to publish a number 

 of important works, such as the section " Birds " in the 

 ' Zoology of the Voyage of II. M.S. Erebus and Terror/ his 

 'Monograph of Swallows' (with C. W. Wyatt), and to 

 complete the ' Birds of Asia/ the ' Birds of New Guinea/ 

 and the ' Monograph of the Humming-Birds/ three great 

 Bolio works by Gould which had been left unfinished at the 

 time of his death. He also contributed endless important 

 memoirs and papers to various scientific periodicals, more 

 especially to ' The Ibis/ the ' Journal ' and f Transactions of 

 the Linncau Society/ the ' Proceedings of the Zoological 



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