516 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 
Tuer following extract from the Address of the Chairman, Dr. P. L. 
Sclater, on opening the Seventh Session of the British Ornithologists’ Club, 
refers to the successful completion of a great conception :— 
« As the Hiditors of ‘ The Ibis’ have already remarked in their preface 
to the volume for the present year, one of the leading ornithological events 
of 1898 is the completion of the ‘ Catalogue of Birds.’ The twenty-sixth 
volume of this work, prepared by Dr. Bowdler Sharpe and Mr. Ogilvie 
Grant, the only one required to finish the series, will, I am assured, be iaid 
before the Trustees at their meeting on the 22nd inst., and be ready for 
issue very shortly afterwards. Thus, after a period of twenty-five years, 
this most important piece of ornithological work has been brought to a 
conclusion. No human product is perfect, and the Catalogue has been» 
and will be, the subject of many criticisms. One obvious defect in it is 
its want of uniformity, the various authors having been permitted, owing 
to the wise discretion of the authorities, very liberal opportunities for the 
expression of their own views in their respective portions, although a 
general adherence to one plan has been rightly insisted upon. But when 
the enormous amount of labour required for this work and the absolute 
necessity of employing more than one author upon such a huge task are 
considered, it will be obvious that greater uniformity was practically un- 
attainable. In the case of the ‘ Catalogue of Reptiles and Batrachians,’ 
where the series of specimens and species was not so large, the herpetolo- 
gists are fortunate in having had the whole of the work performed upon a 
uniform system by the indefatigable energy of a single naturalist. ‘The 
‘Catalogue of Birds,’ as complete in twenty-seven volumes, gives us an 
account of 11,614 species of this Class of Vertebrates, divided into 2255 
genera and 124 families. It has been prepared by eleven authors, all 
Members of the British Ornithologists’ Union, and, with one exception, I 
believe (who is not a resident in England), now or formerly Members 
of this Club. I think it will be universally allowed that we have, in 
this case, a great and most useful undertaking brought to a successful 
conclusion.” 
We have received the Report of Trustees for the year 1897 of the 
Australian Museum, Sydney. Commercial prosperity reacts in a beneficial 
manner on scientific institutions. There must be a revenue to make 
